After the Australian bushfires

[@DbateDe]

Hi Adam, I am an intern at a German TV production company (ECO Media TV) and I would be interested in using parts of this video in an online documentary about the Australian bushfires. Would you be OK with that? Best, Nicola

[@AdamHWoodhams]

Hi Nicola, thanks for your interest & yes, we'll chat off-channel.

[@TheBarefootedGardener]

Hey Adam, Adaptation is amazing. I’ve heard that dealing with forest debris during winter through controlled burns and composting will help? I saw a video from Geoff Lawton who had a few tips for fire suppression. How do those tropical bamboos hold up to fire? I’m glad you’re okay and all the other aussies I know are also okay. I’ll pray for everyone who didn’t fare so well.

[@AdamHWoodhams]

It really is very clever how these things have evolved. Yes, it's a very complicated issue that unfortunately some people are attempting to simplify so that it suits their 'agenda' whatever that may happen to be. Typically 'hazard reduction burns' have been conducted during winter in critical areas. Problem is our temperatures have been rising so steadily that the allowable or safe windows for burning have been getting smaller every year. Then we have been suffering with pretty serious droughts so softer plants, grasses etc. have been killed, or at least have died back, and other plants, like gum trees, respond to drought by dropping 70% or more of their leaves and will start dropping branches too. This obviously increases the amount of available fuel. So, you have hot conditions, increased fuel loads, super-dry fuel, an extremely dry environment... Basically the ideal conditions for catastrophic fires. Which is exactly what we got & is exactly the scenario experts have been warning about for a long time. Hazard reduction burns can be very effective but when its to hot & dry they can go rogue. One recent major fire near the city of Sydney was in-fact started by a hazard reduction burn... It's a really vexed issue to which there are no simple or easy answers. First step is to get our 'leaders' to admit that we do have a major problem. Thanks, I might look that video up. Bamboos tend to burn back very quickly & fiercely, largely due to the leaf-litter they can collect around their bases, but most often they'll reshoot from their rhizomes. Yes, thanks. It's been pretty scary all-round. Just a heartbreaking loss of life, including your US air crew. Tragic & deeply mourned by grateful Aussies. And so many people have lost absolutely everything. Just very hard to comprehend what that must be like. When you see someone being interviewed on the TV news & the clothes they are wearing are all they have left... I just hope this whole horrible situation unites us all in concerted action rather than serving to further divide us.