Victoria’s Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio with members of the Save Our Strathbogie Forest group
A legal case brought by the Save our Strathbogie Forests group against the Victorian government threatens to set a precedent that could tie up fuel reduction burns across Australia in bureaucratic and legislative green tape. Source: Weekly Times
SOSF president Bertram Lobert has teamed up with Bleyer lawyers to lodge a case that went to a directions’ hearing this week, asking the Supreme Court to stop all planned burns in the Strathbogie Forest and require federal approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act before lighting any more fires in spring.
Mr Lobert said planned burns often destroyed tree hollows that were home to the Strathbogie Forests’ Southern Greater Glider population, which Arthur Ryler Institute research has shown is about 69,000.
“Though we have made every effort to voice our concerns in the strongest possible way to the relevant government agencies and to government itself, our concerns and requests have been completely and repeatedly rebutted,” Mr Lobert said.
But leading forestry and fire scientists fear the case could lead to public land managers across Australia being forced to gain federal approval before conducting any planned burn that risked any of the 590 animals and 1427 floral species listed as threatened under the EPBC Act.
University of Melbourne fire scientist Kevin Tolhurst said Victoria’s current Code of Practice for Bushfire Management, which covers planned burn objectives, did not require any on-ground surveys of threatened species, with assessment done at the desktop level.
“If you had to do an EES (environment effects statement) every time, it would require a lot of field surveys to be done,” Professor Tolhurst said, “closing down prescribed burning.”
“The thing that drives these people is they think humans aren’t part of the environment, when in fact humans have been burning the landscape for thousands of years.”
Forest Industry consultant Garry Squires said requiring land managers to refer planned burns under the EPBC Act would put planned burns on hold, at a time when there was already “less and less fuel management and we risk more and more severe wildfires”.
Mr Squires said people had to accept that while a mild planned burn might kill some animals, it could save the species.
“(Otherwise) let’s just stop burning and wait for the next wildfire to wipe out the species,” Mr Squires said.
Documents lodged by the SOSF with the Supreme Court state if the case is “not resolved prior to the spring 2023 burning season”, then the state “restrained from conducting planned burns in the Strathbogie State Forest pending the resolution of this proceeding”.
DETAILS OF CLAIM
On the grounds stated in the accompanying affidavit, the Applicant claims:
- An injunction under s 475 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (the EPBC Act) to restrain the Respondent from conducting planned burns in the Strathbogie State Forest.
- A declaration that the exemption issued under s 158 of the EPBC Act on January 14, 2020 does not exempt from the approval requirement of the EPBC Act planned burns in the Strathbogie State Forest, which would have a significant impact on a protected matter.
- A declaration that planned burns in the Strathbogie State Forest are required to be referred under s 68 of the EPBC Act.
- Costs.
- Any other order needed to do justice.
