Images released by wilderness photographer Rob Blakers show Tasmania’s bushfires damaged more Huon pines than first reported by the Tasmania Government.
On the 21st of February, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania (NRE Tas) conducted a low-level helicopter flight to assess the damage of the West Coast’s Yellowband Creek Bushfire. Flying over the length of the Harman and Wilson Rivers, the Tasmania Government confirmed in a statement that the several high-conservation Huon pine stands along both rivers remained intact, including one particular tree dated to be 3,000 years old.
Senior Ecologist Steve Leonard from NRE Tas declared that ‘the only impacts on Huon pine observed were a handful of scorched trees on the lower Harman River, which are outside of the main Huon pine stand. There is also a reasonable chance that these trees will survive’.
However, in a statement released by the Bob Brown Foundation, famed Tasmania wilderness photographer Rob Blakers captured images to report that ‘a significant enclave of Huon pine rainforest did burn at the lower Harman River’. Adding ‘the trees themselves live for thousands of years, they’re not found anywhere else on the planet, and they do not recover after anything but the very lightest of fires’.
Future-proofing against the increased threat of bushfires
Tasmania’s State of the Environment Report, released in September 2024, noted the likelihood of Tasmania experiencing increasing bushfire risk due to climate change and recommended fire management activities be strengthened.
Dr Leonard said the forests had managed to hold on in the landscape until now because they occur in areas of natural fire refuge.
‘However we can’t just rely on natural fire protection and we’ve seen in the current and recent fires that actions like water bombing, retardant drops, and sprinkler lines can be very effective in bolstering natural refuges and preventing fire impacts to these significant natural values.’
Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) State Fire Manager Katy Edwards said, ‘We use state-of-the-art remote camera units, coupled with satellite technology, to detect dry lightning strikes and monitor for hotspots. We also conduct planned burns to reduce the risk of bushfires and help preserve ecosystems across our reserve estate’.
Bob Brown has criticized the Rockliff government’s ignorance of global warming in the wake of the burnt Huon pines, calling for a huge change in attitude to wilderness destruction.
‘I challenge Premier Rockliff and Prime Minister Albanese to fly into the burnt pines with us and see the destruction for themselves. Their policies of stoking greater global heating, through more coal mines, gas fracking, and forest burning, ensure that future Tasmanian fires will be even more disastrous’, Brown said.
Images by Rob Blakers
