In Western Australia, a government-approved prescribed burn that felled a centuries-old red tingle tree has sparked renewed calls for a rethink of the state’s approach to bushfire mitigation. Conservationists say trees in the state’s iconic ‘Valley of the Giants’ are being put at risk by the very measures meant to protect them.
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00:00A hole in the forest where a giant once stood.
00:06Walpole on WA's south coast is home to some of the oldest and rarest plants on earth.
00:11Tingle only grows in 60 square kilometres and that is on the whole planet.
00:17Red tingles live for hundreds of years reaching heights of 75 metres tall and they only grow
00:22in the protected valley of the giants.
00:25But conservationists say a contentious practice is putting the trees at risk.
00:29The severity, the frequency and the scale of prescribed burns are very concerning.
00:36Last month the state government conducted a burn in the forest aiming to reduce the
00:40likelihood and severity of summer bushfires.
00:43Such burns are meant to protect the trees but locals say they're having the opposite
00:47effect.
00:49This tree you can see it burned like it was scorched to here and the rest of the tree
00:56is not impacted by the fire at all, which shows that the tree actually fell during
01:04the fire.
01:05I believe that these trees which are 400 to 1,000 years old have to be preserved as best
01:12as we can.
01:13A spokesperson for the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attraction said while one
01:18large tree was felled, 300 others and the region's biodiversity were protected.
01:24Not everyone agrees.
01:25There is no argument for burning the tingle.
01:29The large scale burns in that area are greatly intensifying the bushfire risk for the area
01:34and the reason for that is that they promote a regrowth of dense understory plants and
01:42they remove the taller mid-story.
01:44Experts say firefighting resources should be deployed elsewhere.
01:48In our current situation with global warming we've got a greater bushfire risk and so we
01:53really need to invest in rapid detection and suppression of fires.
01:58Calls for a change of strategy on a burning issue.