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Australia fires: Aboriginal planners say the bush 'needs to burn'
BBC ^ | 1/12 | Gary Nunn

Posted on 01/13/2020 3:14:25 PM PST by nickcarraway

For thousands of years, the Indigenous people of Australia set fire to the land.

Long before Australia was invaded and colonised by Europeans, fire management techniques - known as "cultural burns" - were being practised.

The cool-burning, knee-high blazes were designed to happen continuously and across the landscape.

The fires burn up fuel like kindling and leaf detritus, meaning a natural bushfire has less to devour.

Since Australia's fire crisis began last year, calls for better reintegration of this technique have grown louder. But it should have happened sooner, argues one Aboriginal knowledge expert.

"The bush needs to burn," says Shannon Foster.

She's a knowledge keeper for the D'harawal people - relaying information passed on by her elders - and an Aboriginal Knowledge lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Much of the ancestral information she shares relates to the bush, says Ms Foster.

"It's the concept of maintaining country - central to everything we do as Aboriginal people. It's about what we can give back to country; not just what we can take from it."

'Naive' techniques of today Country is personified within Aboriginal culture. "The earth is our mother. She keeps us alive," Ms Foster says. This relationship shifts priorities around precautionary burning.

While modern-day authorities do carry out hazard reduction burning, focusing on protecting lives and property, Ms Foster says it's "clearly not working".

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aborigines; australia; fire
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1 posted on 01/13/2020 3:14:25 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Had two fires on the ranch back in 2011, lost damn near half of it. Fourteen square miles of pasture and a few fences was all we lost. The sections we lost were mostly Cedar thickets. Those same pastures are better now than I’ve ever seen them. You need a good burn every now and then.


2 posted on 01/13/2020 3:25:55 PM PST by Dusty Road (")
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To: nickcarraway
Once again, the wisdom of the Aboriginal and their 'traditional practices'.

Naturally when white people in government suggest the same thing, the Eco Nazis protest and shut it down.

White man bad. Black man good.

NYT: Aboriginal Hunters’ Fires Help Restore an Australian Desert (Feb. 8, 2019)

3 posted on 01/13/2020 3:27:09 PM PST by yesthatjallen
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To: nickcarraway

“cultural burns”

So, if it’s a bunch of stone age Ferals burning everything it’s OK.


4 posted on 01/13/2020 3:27:33 PM PST by dljordan
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To: nickcarraway

American Indians did the same thing in Virginia. They burned off the underbrush to expose the game that they hunted and to prevent their enemies from sneaking up on them.

Early Jamestown colonials marveled at how there was a lack of underbrush and how they could gallop their horses across the landscape as a result.


5 posted on 01/13/2020 3:28:03 PM PST by Pelham (RIP California, killed by massive immigration)
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To: nickcarraway; All

Now uncommon common sense versus today’s institutionally indoctrinated, politically correct, global warming alarmism.

Insights welcome.


6 posted on 01/13/2020 3:30:09 PM PST by Amendment10
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To: yesthatjallen

Replacing “Learn, baby, learn”, with “Burn, baby, burn”.


7 posted on 01/13/2020 3:35:00 PM PST by fhayek
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To: nickcarraway

It does. The drawback is that aboriginal peoples couldn’t do what we call a controlled burn, since they didn’t have the capacity to control it and the weather knowledge to predict posible changes, so some of the burns they started - which were well meant - could be destructive. So Aussies are attacking them now.

But the principle is correct. We do burns here in Florida, and I was out at a local park a couple of weeks ago where the ranger explained the burn policy and its objectives. It’s partly to protect residential areas and partly to promote healthy plant growth, and they have a multi year plan. Not always easy, even though they’re in constant contact with the weather station, but they’re doing a great job. She’s out there all the time trying to figure out the right location for the fires.

Of course in CA and other wildfire zones, the flake greenie governors don’t permit sensible forest control...even though the Indians probably would have been doing it all along.


8 posted on 01/13/2020 3:37:10 PM PST by livius
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To: nickcarraway

Australia has the same problem that California does. The extremists have made sensible land management a crime. I heard that in Australia a home owner was fined $100,000 dollars for cutting a fire break on his property. His home was the only one left standing when fire swept through his neighborhood recently.


9 posted on 01/13/2020 3:44:34 PM PST by Trumpnado2016 (Welcome to Trump World.)
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To: livius

Yes. The Yosemite Valley was described as “park like “ by the early White visitors. The natives had been doing controlled burns already.


10 posted on 01/13/2020 3:44:35 PM PST by married21 (As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.)
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To: nickcarraway

Shhh, don’t let the libs hear that.


11 posted on 01/13/2020 3:44:48 PM PST by bgill
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To: nickcarraway

How can we sleep when our beds are burning?


12 posted on 01/13/2020 3:45:42 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: livius; Pelham

I know for a fact the Ohlone did types of controlled burns in their are aof Northern California.


13 posted on 01/13/2020 3:46:26 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: dfwgator
Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning
14 posted on 01/13/2020 3:47:22 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: livius
even though the Indians probably would have been doing it all along.

Yep. They did. When California was covered with oaks the burns were quick and relatively gentle. The grass and underbrush burned and the trees did not, Then there was a light coat of ash to fertilize the ground and encourage regrowth. Also, the fires were not real intense so seeds that were buried were not fried and they would regenerate. Wildlife was generally spared as well. Not now. It's for the children, you know.

15 posted on 01/13/2020 3:49:02 PM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: nickcarraway

Modern Leftists: Not as smart as stone age tribesman.


16 posted on 01/13/2020 3:51:08 PM PST by TalBlack (Damn right I'll "do something" you fat, balding son of a bitc)
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To: dfwgator

How can we dance when our earth is turning?


17 posted on 01/13/2020 3:51:18 PM PST by shotgun
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To: nickcarraway

Its like wrapping up common sense fire management in a wrapper that might even sell to Leftists who are otherwise blaming “climate change”—but will still likely blame “climate change” anyway.


18 posted on 01/13/2020 3:59:39 PM PST by AndyTheBear
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To: nickcarraway

“Cultural burns?” Agricultural burns make more sense. Fire decreases harmful bug overpopulation, invasive plants, and provides potassium, calcium, phosphorous, and magnesium. It also raises pH in overly acidic soil.

The biology commies should buzz off and leave farmers alone. And by the way, there has always been an area with fewer fish in the Gulf of Mexico near the Mississippi. Little girl graduates, cease and desist from from trying to rob farmers in states along the Mississippi with moronic juvenile assumptions.


19 posted on 01/13/2020 4:05:45 PM PST by familyop ("Welcome to Costco. I love you." - -Costco greeter in the movie, "Idiocracy")
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To: dfwgator

Don’t bring up that bald bonehead. Or his goofball band.

CC


20 posted on 01/13/2020 4:06:42 PM PST by Celtic Conservative (My cats are more amusing than 200 channels worth of TV)
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