Fires around Bright

Walrus said:

For those doing the Alpine Classic in January (I'm one), there are fires in Mt Beauty and Tawonga. I've always liked that descent into Mt Beauty, with the vines and the valley...it'll be scary to see it in January.

theage.com.au1165685649353.htmlOpen ↗

It will regenerate, though probably not fully in our lifetimes. Not forgetting Mt Buffalo is still rather barren after almost three years, all that exposed granite is by accounts, generating a lot of radiant heat in the arvo, in time for the 200km riders. 🙁

Walrus said:

For those doing the Alpine Classic in January (I'm one), there are fires
in Mt Beauty and Tawonga. I've always liked that descent into Mt
Beauty, with the vines and the valley...it'll be scary to see it in
January.

I rode up and down Hotham 10 days after the huge fires ripped through
there in '03 I think? Surreal....

Here hoping that all the fires are under control come Classic time. It would be a shame if they had to call it off again because of fire.

neon said:

Here hoping that all the fires are under control come Classic time. It would be a shame if they had to call it off again because of fire.

Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but I reckon we'd need some good solid rain across the Alps before mid January for the fires to be controlled to the point where the AAC can run. The 2003 fires started on Buffalo on New Years Day and burned out of control for at least 5-6 weeks. The current fires have only been going 2 weeks and there is still a heap of fuel for them to chew through.

Unregistered said:

Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but I reckon we'd need some good solid rain across the Alps before mid January for the fires to be controlled to the point where the AAC can run. The 2003 fires started on Buffalo on New Years Day and burned out of control for at least 5-6 weeks. The current fires have only been going 2 weeks and there is still a heap of fuel for them to chew through.

I hope they do regain control...not just for my sake in wanting to ride the AAC, but obviously for the area itself.

Walrus said:

I hope they do regain control...not just for my sake in wanting to ride the AAC, but obviously for the area itself.

My 2c...

- Let it burn, its only nature taking its course.
- Protect life and property*

*only where necessary. I saw a news snippet of CFA vuln's clearing breaks around someone's shed the other day, crazy! If the owner is foolish enough not to take responsibility of this themselves too f'n bad! These people live in the bush they should know better... (says me now living in cottonwool-ville that is the inner city)..

ok, 3c...

I've grown up with my old man being a life long member of the CFA back home and have been around 'fireies' quite a lot. These guys define hardcore when they are out there doing their thing for $0. Tough as nails.

The ride from Zumies to Halls Gap was indeed eerie after most of that was burnt down. Not from a 'awww its all dead' perspective, it'll grow back, but from a 'where are the pretty trees to look at, and where is my damn shade!?' perspective.. 🙂

lama

gplama said:

My 2c...

- Let it burn, its only nature taking its course.
- Protect life and property*

My brother & his family lived out in Dandenong Ranges for a while, then got sick & tired of being scared [censored] every summer. Hence they've moved back to southern "Tierra del Fuego". Problem is, there's fires also ripping through the east coast at the mo. 🙁

I probably saw what was a crown fire in '83, from about 5km's away. The radiant heat was indescribable as it was equally terrifying.

gplama said:

My 2c...

- Let it burn, its only nature taking its course.
- Protect life and property*

Depends on the ferocity of the fire. If the Greenies have had their way and
the fuel load is above 30 tonnes per hectare because it hasn't been burnt
for 20 years, then, on a hot day with a decent wind, the fire will destroy
some species of trees. You'd be amazed what a gum tree is capable of though.
Blackened stumps which sprout new green branches from the trunk in a few
months. They have dormant buds under the bark for just such a scenario.
Tough trees that can survive amazing fires. As well as that, the fire wakes
up all the gumnuts that are buried under the debris and new growth comes up
everywhere. A pine forest however..... dies.

Quoted message said:

*only where necessary. I saw a news snippet of CFA vuln's clearing
breaks around someone's shed the other day, crazy! If the owner is
foolish enough not to take responsibility of this themselves too f'n
bad! These people live in the bush they should know better... (says
me now living in cottonwool-ville that is the inner city)..

Yeah, we do that. Never pass judgement on the resident (well, not out loud).

Quoted message said:

ok, 3c...

I've grown up with my old man being a life long member of the CFA back
home and have been around 'fireies' quite a lot. These guys define
hardcore when they are out there doing their thing for $0. Tough as
nails.

I've been a member of my local Firies for seven years, now president of the
local brigade and recently made a lieutenant, (a yelllow hat person). When
someone asks "Who's in charge here" they all point to the yellow hat. :-( I
spent two weeks in Singleton, NSW in 2003 as relief for the local Firies
during their "problems", working 14 hour days and drinking 12 litres of
water a day without needing to pee. If you don't need to pee, you're not
drinking enough, but Geez, you can drown in that water stuff, and you can
top up on beer at the end of the day. :-)

Theo
Haven't been to a fire since... uh, yesterday avo, but that was under
control before we arrived.

Theo Bekkers said:

gplama said:

My 2c...

- Let it burn, its only nature taking its course.
- Protect life and property*

Depends on the ferocity of the fire. If the Greenies have had their way
and the fuel load is above 30 tonnes per hectare because it hasn't been
burnt for 20 years, then, on a hot day with a decent wind, the fire will
destroy some species of trees. You'd be amazed what a gum tree is capable
of though. Blackened stumps which sprout new green branches from the trunk
in a few months. They have dormant buds under the bark for just such a
scenario. Tough trees that can survive amazing fires. As well as that, the
fire wakes up all the gumnuts that are buried under the debris and new
growth comes up everywhere.

Just a point of clarification regarding the Victorian forests. Around
Melbourne's mountains the dominant forest tree is the Mountain Ash. They
depend on fire. It kills them, but they drop a huge seed load that quickly
regrows in the ash bed. But if another fire burns through the area in less
than 30 years the new forest won't have matured to set seed, and they don't
have those epicormic buds under the bark to resprout, they just die. Thus
the forest dies out. So less frequent, severe fires are essential to the
survival of our magnificent tall mountain ash forests (the tallest flowering
plants in the world).

Think of the Dandenongs, Donna Buang, Marysville area, all of Melbournes
water catchments. To preserve those forests they need fires on a cycle of
greater than once every 30 years.

Just my 2c

--
Cheers
Peter

~~~ ~ _@
~~ ~ _- \,
~~ (*)/ (*)

Peter Signorini said:

Think of the Dandenongs, Donna Buang, Marysville area, all of Melbournes
water catchments. To preserve those forests they need fires on a cycle of
greater than once every 30 years.

Brain fart!!

Of course that should be 'less than once every 30 years'

--
Cheers
Peter

~~~ ~ _@
~~ ~ _- \,
~~ (*)/ (*)

In article <[email hidden]>,

Peter Signorini said:

Of course that should be 'less than once every 30 years'

Um, I think you were correct the other way around. At least, that's what
your argument suggests.

--
Shane Stanley

Peter Signorini said:

Just a point of clarification regarding the Victorian forests. Around
Melbourne's mountains the dominant forest tree is the Mountain Ash.
They depend on fire. It kills them, but they drop a huge seed load
that quickly regrows in the ash bed.

Quoted message said:

Think of the Dandenongs, Donna Buang, Marysville area, all of
Melbournes water catchments. To preserve those forests they need
fires on a cycle of greater than once every 30 years.

And if they get fires more often they are no longer Mountain Ash, just ash?

I'm not familiar with the Vic forestry and bow to your knowledge. It takes a
hell of a fire to kill Jarrah or Karri here. You can burn or cut the tree
down to ground level and several new trunks will grow out of the roots.

Theo

On 2006-12-13, Theo Bekkers (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:

Quoted message said:

gplama said:

My 2c...

- Let it burn, its only nature taking its course.
- Protect life and property*

Depends on the ferocity of the fire. If the Greenies have had their way and
the fuel load is above 30 tonnes per hectare because it hasn't been burnt
for 20 years, then, on a hot day with a decent wind, the fire will destroy
some species of trees.

*cough* [censored] *cough*

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/what-price-now/2006/12/10/1165685553948.html?page=fullpage

The Blue Gum Forest has been burnt four or five times in less than
50 years: by wildfire in 1957, possibly 1968, and in 1982, 1994 and
2006.

"Without human interference, this forest may have been burnt once or
perhaps twice in 50 years, not five times," Jones said.

Jones is convinced cracks in majestic gums were caused by the
fire. If they are deep enough to effectively ringbark the surviving
trees, then the demise of the forest promises to be a slow and
painful affair.

The bush can't fully recover from accidental fires every decades, let
alone deliberate burnoffs every few years.

Quoted message said:

I've been a member of my local Firies for seven years, now president of the
local brigade and recently made a lieutenant, (a yelllow hat person). When
someone asks "Who's in charge here" they all point to the yellow hat. :-( I
spent two weeks in Singleton, NSW in 2003 as relief for the local Firies
during their "problems", working 14 hour days and drinking 12 litres of
water a day without needing to pee. If you don't need to pee, you're not
drinking enough, but Geez, you can drown in that water stuff, and you can
top up on beer at the end of the day. :-)

We've still got 130-200 firies in town from the last reports I read,
and we're already mopping up.

The fires of '97 were huge around here, and apparently this year
they're not that much smaller -- 300km of perimeter.

The relatively dry storm we had lastnight scared me. But the little
bit of rain we have had has washed the smoke out of the air, and you
can make out large swathes of brown land from up on the mountain.

--
TimC
This plane is not equipped with vertices.

TimC said:

*cough* [censored] *cough*

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/what-price-now/2006/12/10/1165685553948.html?page=fullpage

The Blue Gum Forest has been burnt four or five times in less than
50 years: by wildfire in 1957, possibly 1968, and in 1982, 1994 and
2006.

"Without human interference, this forest may have been burnt once or
perhaps twice in 50 years, not five times," Jones said.

The continueing war between the Greenies and the Firies.

Theo

Theo Bekkers said:

TimC said:

*cough* [censored] *cough*

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/what-price-now/2006/12/10/1165685553948.html?page=fullpage

The Blue Gum Forest has been burnt four or five times in less than
50 years: by wildfire in 1957, possibly 1968, and in 1982, 1994 and
2006.

"Without human interference, this forest may have been burnt once or
perhaps twice in 50 years, not five times," Jones said.

The continueing war between the Greenies and the Firies.

You can always bulldoze it all and concrete it, then it'll never burn!

Bleve said:

Theo Bekkers wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The continueing war between the Greenies and the Firies.

Quoted message said:

You can always bulldoze it all and concrete it, then it'll never burn!

We had at least 400 trees of around 10 metres in our backyard when we moved
in, plus another 500-600 grass trees. We cut down four to build the house,
and another three that were dead and dangerous. We have since planted
another 200 trees in the front yard plus lots of shrubs, etc. Most of the
new trees are over three metres now, and one is seven metres. My wife is a
little mad about camelias. We have at least 40, but I'm afraid to count them
as the total cost would scare me.

Theo

Walrus said:

For those doing the Alpine Classic in January (I'm one), there are fires in Mt Beauty and Tawonga. I've always liked that descent into Mt Beauty, with the vines and the valley...it'll be scary to see it in January.

theage.com.au1165685649353.htmlOpen ↗

I'm also doing the AAC 140 kms ride, however the fires really look like they will jeopardise the ride this year. I doubt that they'll be out, and if if they aren't a direct threat, it's likely to be smokey for ages. My problem is that whilst we have a nice house (with a pool as there's little water in the Ovens River) booked we are approaching the deadline for canceling the booking and getting an almost full refund. If we do cancel we can finally make the trip to Tour Down Under, but I love Bright and the AAC so much that I don't want the region to suffer even more loss through more cancelled tourists.

What to do.....?