Rare Aussie bird under threat over common tree practice: 'Catastrophic'

Bushfires are a “very real fear” for Aussies. But plans to reduce their risk by torching over 10,000 hectares of bushland around the homeland of a rare bird has caused an uproar.

At the centre of the controversy are prescribed burns scheduled for Victoria’s picturesque Gippsland Lakes region, a feeding and nesting ground for the glossy black cockatoo, which was added to the federal list of threatened species in 2022.

Nationally, the birds have declined because their main food source has been destroyed. The "glossies", as they're affectionately known, dine almost exclusively on she-oaks (Casuarina and Allocasuarina), trees the government’s own research found are severely impacted by intense heat.

Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV) which sits within the Department of Environment (DEECA) is the agency behind the controversial burning schedule in Gippsland. It claims to have designed a program that will “minimise any direct, unintended impacts” on threatened species, including glossies. And it argues reducing fuel loads lessens the threat of more severe bushfires completely destroying critical trees.

But Lisa Roberts from advocacy group Friends of Bats and Habitat Gippsland is warning that with only 35 to 40 glossies left between the Snowy River and Lakes Entrance, each remaining feed tree is important. She's worried the scale of the planned burns is so large, trees will be destroyed before FFMV and its contractors have mapped them — a slow process that must be completed on foot because the trees can't be detected using satellite imagery.

Another concern is once habitat is identified, authorities can simply bulldoze around it and burn the surrounding forest. "When they put a bulldozer in it just lets people into those sites, and feral animals also follow those tracks," she said.

And then there's the impact on hollow-bearing nesting trees by the intense fires — they take 200 years to form before they're suitable for use, and can be destroyed in minutes by a fire.

Fire management in Victoria under scrutiny

Roberts is one of a growing number of wildlife advocates opposed to what's been described as "industrial" scale burns. Earlier this year, she blasted FFMV for scheduling 1000 across the state over the next three years.

The agency has come under intense scrutiny. In May, it felled a hollowed tree to make way for a fire break, appearing to ignore repeated warnings that an endangered greater glider was living inside.

In October, it was revealed FFMV had planned to burn forest close to where the last 10 wild bald-tip beard orchids grow, near the Central Victorian town of Whroo.

FFMV removed the region from its burn schedule, but it maintains the orchid could have been protected from the flames. "If the burn had gone ahead, we were prepared to put in place protective measures that included a large exclusion zone to ensure the orchid was not impacted by activities at the site," FFMV told Yahoo.

When it comes to the glossies, FFMV has searched 1,100 hectares of land across Gippsland for feed trees, and it plans to survey a further 5,000 hectares. It will protect the trees with signs of chew marks from the last 12 months.

“The greatest threat to glossy black cockatoo critical feeding habitat is uncontrollable fire. Ensuring the protection of native wildlife and habitat is a key priority when implementing our planned burning program,” it told Yahoo.

Research suggests burns have 'catastrophic' impact on wildlife

While burns have an immediate impact on fuel loads, they're only a short-term solution. Highlighting the problem are two photos taken at Colquhoun Forest. One taken in 2021 shows the undergrowth completely denuded by fire, but a subsequent image taken four years later shows it has returned thicker than before.

The images also highlight the common practice of felling trees to create a safe work environment before burns begin.

The 2019/2020 Black Summer Bushfires had a catastrophic impact on wildlife, harming around 3 billion animals. The devastation prompted state governments around the country to scale up prescribed burns in the name of protecting people and biodiversity.

But new research published in the journal Nature last week calls into question the assumption that prescribed burns help protect wildlife. It concluded repeated burns can intensify the impact on ecosystems when large bushfires occur.

Previous research had indicated burns conducted three to five years before bushfires lessened the impact on wildlife. But the new study, which involved 100 scientists examining 1,300 animal and plant species, concluded the practice is “potentially catastrophic”.

Its lead author Professor Don Driscoll argued the study should lead to a complete “rethink” of fire management practices by state authorities.

Fire expert reveals simple solution to 'brutal' fire regime

Dr David Bowman, a professor of fire science at the University of Tasmania, has studied the practices of Indigenous land managers in Arnhem Land for 25 years.

These methods have been used for generations, and provide wildlife with pathways to escape the flames. Whereas the “industrial” scale burns which are designed to “process landscapes as efficiently as possible” are known to frequently kill – in 2022, Victorian authorities accidentally incinerated several koalas when they set a forest alight, and evidence suggests fires set in Tasmania have killed endangered devils.

Weighing up the two styles, Bowman said “it’s like comparing fast food with slow food cooking. Fast food is all about doing it quickly – you want it out the door – boom, boom, boom. But slow cooking is just as much about the process as the result. It’s about coupling people to country and enjoying time with others while doing the burning.”

Although he believes state-managed fire management is often a “brutal” system, Bowman doesn’t think prescribed burns should be abandoned. Because cultural burning may no longer be viable across vast areas of the country that have been absent of regular human activity since European settlement.

He thinks burning in a mosaic pattern, similar to those used by Indigenous fire experts, is the best way to manage the land. This process maintains pathways within the forest and ensures large swathes of habitat aren’t simply destroyed.

“Most nature reserves are lacking long-unburned native vegetation. Animals like to have mosaics, with different vegetation structures for roosting, shelter from predators, logs, and plants with food resources like nectar and fruit.

“But if you are just homogenising the landscape with this burning and burning and burning, of course you're going to have negative effects on biodiversity.”

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