Fire Warnings

AaronM

Likes Dirt
Buy a really decent mask if you are riding in that.

We haven’t had regular postal service (or courier) for about a month between the Hume Highway closures and the AQI getting the posties off the streets.

In any case getting something like that to seal effectively is probably challenge, although way better than the disposable types people people are using here that probably are just coffee filters shaped like a mask.

I grew up messing with all sorts of chemicals and asbestos materials such that some PM2.5 at age 45 is either going to let me step of this earth early or be a woofteeth of a contributing factor to a future miserable death. Oh and I lived in and renovated an undocumented MrFluffy (loose fill asbestos) house for 3 years.
 

mike14

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Where do you live/work, Mike?
Live in Melbourne (inner suburbs), work in Coburg. Office would probably be 70/30 born and raised in the city and suburbs to rural areas, although we have quite a few ex-ADF personnel so they've all traveled around a bit and have likely have more of an interest in emergency management stuff than others.
 

D01

Likes Dirt
Wtf are they meant to do, run about the place screaming like chicken little?
Not going on holidays to fire threatened places like the south coast of NSW would be a good start. That's a pretty good indication of someone's concern and selfishness to me.

It's been a stressful last two weeks for us, but the fire came through our place Saturday evening. Finally. It's stressful knowing it's coming, but just waiting and not knowing when, or how bad it's going to be. There were jokes about starting one, just to get it over with, probably only half joking toward the end.

My road had a large contingent of stay and defenders, only a couple of sheds were lost. An undefendable house was lost, but that's no surprise, the guy living there left early.

You can't heap praise on the fireies enough.
 

Haakon

Keeps on digging
I was surprised at the number of firies that came through my place blaming the greens for this. One validated it saying the EPA has shut down a lot of hazard reduction because the poor city folk don't like the smoke it causes.
In Victoria at least the CFA volunteer brigade has a damaging and unproductive culture problem of hating the paid DWELP fire fighters.

It’s the DWELP guys that do the controlled burns and the volunteers (which do sadly have a fair share of herald sun reading 2GB listeners...) thinks they’re doing it wrong. It’s a problem.
So not all firies speak for all of them, there are some subtleties to be aware of...
 

nathanm

Eats Squid
On a different point, I'm concerned as to how much of the donations being made will actually reach affected victims and how. I read ( I think on their FB page) that the Red Cross have confirmed they take an amount greater to 20% of all donations for administrative costs so you'd have to think that amount would be conservative.
I'm surprised they haven't set up a seperate appeal and guarantee'd 100% of donations to victims, though considering they've been caught underpaying staff with (according to the guardian) $20m owing the pessimist in me thinks they'll be seeing this as a great opportunity to pay back some debts.
It's going to be a massive task, very soon, of administering tens of millions of dollars to thousands of displaced victims.
 

pharmaboy

Eats Squid
as mountain bikers, has anyone else noticed the huge increase in sticks and leaf litter over the last month? bad habit of gum trees that when stressed they start shedding - i expect thats part of the fuel problem...
 

Tubbsy

Packin' a small bird
Staff member
PARTY POOPED

I’ve moved multiple pages of bickering and CC related commentary into the relevant thread, as per @Dales Cannon’s request a few days ago.

Let’s keep this thread for constructive advice and observations on the ground.
 

Haakon

Keeps on digging
as mountain bikers, has anyone else noticed the huge increase in sticks and leaf litter over the last month? bad habit of gum trees that when stressed they start shedding - i expect thats part of the fuel problem...
I only notice the trees that jump out in front of me on fast sections.... Bloody trees, burn them all!
 

silentbutdeadly

has some good things to say
as mountain bikers, has anyone else noticed the huge increase in sticks and leaf litter over the last month? bad habit of gum trees that when stressed they start shedding - i expect thats part of the fuel problem...
Our place resembles that. Over the last twelve months things have got progressively worse. We are loosing mature trees on the ridgelines and many others further down have shed much of their canopy and outer branches. We can also see much further through the understorey...

Interesting thing is though...if the overstorey is diminished (around here anyway) then the understorey and shrub layer goes berserk with extra light (not to mention water). Which makes it more fireprone.

The local fire management specialist told me last month that if an area around here with a diminished or removed canopy is allowed to regenerate then the greatest fire risk occurs within the first 10 years and then declines over the following 20 before beginning to rise again. Primarily, because of the shrub and understorey having a wonderful time with a reduced canopy...
 

beeb

Dr. Beebenson, PhD HA, ST, Offset (hons)
The local fire management specialist told me last month that if an area around here with a diminished or removed canopy is allowed to regenerate then the greatest fire risk occurs within the first 10 years and then declines over the following 20 before beginning to rise again. Primarily, because of the shrub and understorey having a wonderful time with a reduced canopy...
Exactly why hazard-reduction can be counter-productive in a lot of places, the regrowth can be like a powder-keg.

Would love to see more focus on restoring natural flows of water across our land to help assist evaporation and rain creation, having forests periodically wet from rain (even if it is a summer storm) is the best hazard reduction IMO. You can have heaps of debris and dead trees providing habitat and adding nourishment to the soil as long as they're wet.
 

Scotty T

Walks the walk
I've noticed thinning on Stromlo over the past three or so years has been carried out. In most places there aren't enough trees to make a thick ground cover from my casual observations but will pay some more attention to what's off the track next ride. Sections on the north side have had every many small trees chopped down, so there is no regrowth like burning will create. From memory the two sections I am thinking about had some of the litter from the thinning left and some removed.

This (the fires) has impacted a bunch of trails I guess, the ones I know of are south coast ones my local mates have ridden, have not been down there to ride myself.
 

FigBo0T

Puts verniers on his headtube
Our place resembles that. Over the last twelve months things have got progressively worse. We are loosing mature trees on the ridgelines and many others further down have shed much of their canopy and outer branches. We can also see much further through the understorey...

Interesting thing is though...if the overstorey is diminished (around here anyway) then the understorey and shrub layer goes berserk with extra light (not to mention water). Which makes it more fireprone.

The local fire management specialist told me last month that if an area around here with a diminished or removed canopy is allowed to regenerate then the greatest fire risk occurs within the first 10 years and then declines over the following 20 before beginning to rise again. Primarily, because of the shrub and understorey having a wonderful time with a reduced canopy...
That's a lot better than the reply I wrote. Looking through the bush, you can see much further than usual.

I spend a lot of time in the bush, I live in it. Don't like leaving it much. Limb dropping is on the up this summer, from my personal obs. I've actually seen two come down on the property I'm on recently. Heard the crack, and saw it fall. The last one would have crushed a car.
 

silentbutdeadly

has some good things to say
Exactly why hazard-reduction can be counter-productive in a lot of places, the regrowth can be like a powder-keg.

Would love to see more focus on restoring natural flows of water across our land to help assist evaporation and rain creation, having forests periodically wet from rain (even if it is a summer storm) is the best hazard reduction IMO. You can have heaps of debris and dead trees providing habitat and adding nourishment to the soil as long as they're wet.
Landscape restoration is what we are trying to do here. Mainly on the cleared 15 acres. The rest is mostly about managing trails and trail erosion within the bush block so that the water is retained within the block as much as possible.

How successful we are depends at the moment on the current fire season and how much luck we have...
 
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