farmdoc's blog post number 199

‘To be or not to be, that is the question’ spake Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play, written about 1600. Some 400 years later, a modern Hamlet might ask ‘To burn or not to burn, that is the question’. After every major bushfire there’s an inquiry, and invariably a resultant recommendation is more hazard reduction burning. Such burning reduces the fuel load and therefore the intensity of future bushfires, However in this era of global warming and climate change, it produces CO₂ – a major greenhouse gas. No-one knows if all the hazard reduction burns produce more or less CO₂ than all the bushfires. Additionally there’s the smoke factor – people with asthma and other respiratory illnesses are at higher risk in the burn-off seasons, i.e. autumn and spring. Whatever I think about hazard reduction burning, I’m an operational member of the Mole Creek Fire Brigade, and so whenever we do a hazard reduction burn, I’m obliged to participate if available. Last Wednesday evening we did one in South Mole Creek, with two appliances and six members. Conditions were perfect – still, cool, not humid – and it proceeded uneventfully. It was a good chance to work under operational fireground conditions. I enjoyed it, as I did the barbecue and drinks supplied by the landowners to thank us. What would Hamlet have thought of a sausage and tomato sauce on bread?