Greenies are an environmental disaster

It is a fact that the Greenies are a significant contributory factor to the bushfires that Australia has been suffering from this summer. Environmental policies at state government and local council level have been a major problem for people trying to clear land around their properties so that they have a protective fire break.

Supporters of the Greens Party have been throwing red herrings into the mix by trying to shift the blame with their line of “The Greens weren’t in power, so it can’t be their fault”. However, it is the ideological supporters and fellow-travellers of the wider Greens movement (especially those in government bureaucracies) who are the problem, including those “grassroots” Greenies who lobby against fuel reduction in local areas.

Greenie environmental laws
The Greenies have been lobbying for radical environmental laws for decades, which are a major problem when it comes to bushfire prevention.

In country areas, residents used to be able to pick up dead branches from the side of the road, to take home to fuel their fires — which was an organic “people-power” symbiotic relationship with the bush, as it benefited country folk with access to free fuel and it helped the bushland by clearing fuel loads, thus creating natural firebreaks. However, the Greenies brought in laws to stop that practice (rules vary from state to state). Those draconian laws didn’t affect the majority of Greenies, as most of them are city-dwellers (with cheap and easy access to gas and electric heating).

In some areas, residents can apply for a permit to pick up dead wood from the roadside — something which used to be considered a God-given right by everyday Australians.

For example, the Federation Council (NSW) allows residents to apply for a “Roadside Firewood Collection Permit”, at the cost of $30 (if residents want to continue to collect wood, they have to re-apply and pay for a new permit every year ). There is a long list of conditions to follow, and if you accidentally break one of the conditions, then you will be banned from having a permit for five years. This includes “People must not park vehicles or collect firewood within 6 metres of the traffic lane of a road” (not so much of the “roadside” collection, in that case). The permit only allows one person to collect the wood, so if a permit-holder had someone helping to lift heavy branches, then the helper could be fined up to $2,200. Such rules enable Greenie commissars to nitpick, issue fines, and make people’s lives a misery.

The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage is also ready and willing to fine Australians for gathering firewood. Their website warns the public:

“Collecting firewood, including fallen trees and dead wood, for use outside of a park boundary is prohibited. Most parks also prohibit the collection of firewood for use within parks.”

Greenies stopping cattle grazing
As well as stopping people from collecting firewood, the Greenies in state governments have stopped or minimised the grazing of cattle in national parks, even though cattle grazing can be a useful tool in reducing fuel load.

The Mountain Cattlemen’s Association of Victoria has published “The Links between Cattle Grazing and Fuel Reduction in the Grazing Zones of the High Country”, in which it states:

“Ongoing research by Prof Mark Adams, Dean of Agriculture Sydney University, suggests that the model of management to provide the best fuel reduction and water yield strategies for the High Country may be a combination of low intensity burning and controlled cattle grazing

…Grazing is but one of a suite of options to reduce fuel loads on public land and all should be carefully considered. Grazing of public land is practical and very effective in areas where even cool fire is not the best option (given the doubtful track record and long term effect of modern management).

…The MCAV is left with no doubt that the “science”, has been hijacked by small determined groups who have personal agendas to prevent Alpine grazing because it does not fit with their ideologies of national parks in Australia.”

In the same MACV document, there is photographic evidence which shows how, in some cases, bushfires have stopped at fence lines where cattle had been grazing on the other side of the fence. Nonetheless, various Greenies are hell-bent on stopping cattle grazing in the high country.

The Labor Party in Victoria banned cattle grazing in the Alpine National Park. The ban did not exempt the scientific trial, using approximately 60 cattle, which was being conducted to determine the impact of cattle grazing on reducing fires. Liam Mannix reported in The Age (28 December 2014) that “The new Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Lisa Neville, will also put a ban on such scientific trials into legislation to stop future governments reversing the policy.”

Greenie bureaucratic obstruction versus creating fire breaks
When it comes to property owners who want to establish a fire break around their property, well, they might as well forget it — unless they have several years to spare and lots of time to waste in battling government bureaucracies and jumping through hoops — because the Greenies and their allies have erected a mountain of red tape around the process of clearing bushland.

The irony is that it was the Greenies’ intent to save some little bush animals who may be displaced or killed in the process of creating of firebreaks, but instead what they’ve done is to help create a situation whereby an estimated 800 million animals were killed in this summer’s bushfires alone.

A typical case is that of Martin Tebbutt, who tried for two-and-a-half years to get government permission to clear his own land to create a fire break. The roadblocks and difficulties that were put in his way were atrocious, such that an ordinary person would give up (which is what often happens).

As Tebbutt pointed out, “Politicians have taken away our right to protect ourselves” (a point which would not be lost on those who have discovered that it is illegal in Australia to have a firearm to protect their own house and family from violent home invaders).

In an interview with Sky News, Tebbutt said that when he wanted to establish a fire break on his property, the red tape process pushed by his local council was incredible:

“It’s an onerous project to start the development application. First you must pay the council, then you receive a pile of paperwork, and amongst that paperwork [it] requires you to count your trees, put numbers on your trees, measure your trees, establish the botanical names of the trees, understand if they’re more than ten years old. You then have to pay to get an arborist’s report. And if they then approve it, you probably have to re-plant trees on another part of your property to replace them.”

Andrew Clarke, the proprietor of the Jinks Creek Winery, said that he had been asking Forest Fire Management Victoria for twenty years to create a fire break at the rear of his property by burning off a border strip of trees in the state forest that backs onto his land. Apparently a planned burn-off was cancelled because there were some nesting birds in the targetted area. What he wanted was help, but what he got was inaction. What he wanted to do was to protect his land, but what he got was a bushfire that destroyed his house, restaurant, and vineyard.

In The Daily Telegraph (13 January 2013) Miranda Devine explained the problems experienced by Brian Williams (who has over 44 years experience in fighting fires, and is the captain of the Kurrajong Heights bushfire brigade):

“Green tape and heavy-handed bureaucracy has made his job harder today than in 28 years as captain. Rather than needing six people to perform a controlled burn in the cooler months, now 40 are involved, to oversee biodiversity and so on.

Williams managed to conduct just two of the five hazard reduction burns he planned before this fire season.

But don’t blame greenies. All week they have been claiming they support hazard reduction. Really?

No matter what legalistic and linguistic ploys are now used to rewrite history, green hostility to proper bushfire management is on the record, from the light-green NIMBYs who object to smoke, to green lobbyists who infiltrate government decision-making, taxpayer-funded green activists who embed themselves in government agencies, the bureaucratic green tape which makes the job of volunteer firefighters so difficult, the green NGOs who strongarm politicians, right up to the political arm of green ideology, The Greens.

It is true The Greens have developed a new set of “aims” including a caveat-studded “effective and sustainable strategy for fuel-reduction management”.

In practice, on the ground, it amounts to covert opposition. Williams scoffs at the Orwellian sophistry: “They publicly say they support it. The reality of how it pans out is nothing like that. Greens have two faces and underneath they are undermining everything.”

…Williams says hazard reduction is still inadequate across NSW, reaching just 1 per cent rather than the 5 per cent minimum recommended by the Victorian bushfire inquiry.

…green pressure on decision-makers filters down into a cascade of subtle bureaucratic obstructions which disempower firefighters on the ground and disregard their expertise.”

Seven years afterwards and Brian Williams and the firefighters are still having problems, being tied up with “green tape”. It was reported by 9 News (13 January 2020) that Brian Williams, still a captain in the NSW Rural Fire Service, told them that it took over two years for them get government permission for a hazard-reduction burn, in order to safeguard approximately 500 homes in Kurrajong Heights from bushfires. Luckily, they got the regulatory permission to save people’s homes a few months before the major bush fires hit. However, to do so, they had to hire a consultant and spend who knows how much time and money in the process.

Sky News (10 January 2020) has reported that “In many of these local government areas the necessary prescribed burning has been “almost impossible” due to the council restrictions including “vegetation restriction orders”.”

Greenies ignoring consequences for humans
These Greenie regulations have real consequences for real people. The Daily Mail (15 November 2019) reported on the case of Liam Sheahan (of Strath Creek, in central Victoria), who decided to create a firebreak of 100 metres (on his own bush property) around his home in 2002, clearing away shrubs and trees. The Nanny State commissars of the local council took him to court, which cost him a whopping $50,000 in fines and $50,000 in legal fees (which would have sent most ordinary Australians into bankruptcy; not that the council would care). However, when the bushfires swept through Strath Creek in 2009, his home was the only one in Strath Creek which wasn’t destroyed. Other people had to flee Strath Creek (one died); whilst at nearby Hazeldene, eleven people died — how many were killed because of the Greenies and their policies?

Miranda Devine reported in The Sydney Morning Herald (12 February 2009) on the Greenies causing deaths:

“It wasn’t climate change which killed as many as 300 people in Victoria last weekend. It wasn’t arsonists. It was the unstoppable intensity of a bushfire, turbo-charged by huge quantities of ground fuel which had been allowed to accumulate over years of drought. It was the power of green ideology over government to oppose attempts to reduce fuel hazards before a megafire erupts, and which prevents landholders from clearing vegetation to protect themselves.

…In July 2007 Scott Gentle …complained of obstruction from green local government authorities of any type of fire mitigation strategies. He told of green interference at Kinglake – at the epicentre of Saturday’s disaster, where at least 147 people died – during a smaller fire there in 2007.

“The contractors were out working on the fire lines. They put in containment lines and cleared off some of the fire trails. Two weeks later that fire broke out, but unfortunately those trails had been blocked up again [by greens] to turn it back to its natural state …Instances like that are just too numerous to mention. Governments …have been in too much of a rush to appease green idealism …This thing about locking up forests is just not working.”

…In nearby St Andrews, where more than 20 people are believed to have died, surviving residents have spoken angrily of “greenies” who prevented them from cutting back trees near their property”.

The Greenies should hang their heads in shame; but they won’t, because — in practical terms — they care far more for their far-left ideology than they do for actual humans.

The Greenies’ excuse: Climate change
The Volunteer Fire Fighters Association stated in 2019 that big fuel loads in the bush are a major problem, and that there is a “disturbing trend to …blame climate change for these large and destructive fires”.

Whereas, on the other hand, the website of the Australian Greens says climate change is the main reason for bushfires:

“The Coalition has spent six years in office ignoring the main cause of these unprecedented bushfires – severe climate change.”

However, the doctrine of the Greens Party isn’t believed by everyone in the mainstream media. Miranda Devine wrote in The Daily Telegraph (5 March 2019):

“it wasn’t climate change that caused the latest bushfires …The real culprit is green ideology which opposes the necessary hazard reduction of fuel loads in national parks and which prevents landholders from clearing vegetation around their homes.

The ongoing poor management of national parks and state forests in Victoria and green obstruction of fire mitigation strategies has led to dangerously high fuel loads over the past decade.

That means that when fires do inevitably break out they are so intense that they are devilishly difficult for firefighters to contain.”

For years Greenie groups have used various tactics to stop or minimise planned burn-offs. The Greenie group “Environment East Gippsland” has been spouting headlines like “Fire management out of control”, “Burning off our biodiversity: breaking every rule in the book”, “Wildlife killed by department burn in fauna reserve”, and “Petition – Immediate halt to planned burns – review fire management policies”; they have also boasted that they are:

“questioning many of the planned burns, having input into the FSC process (wood certification for VicForests), networking with forests/carbon/climate groups and of course cooking up the next legal case against VicForests.”

Social commentator Chris Morris wrote (11 January 2020):

“The Greens and green activists will claim they never had any “policy” to prevent backburning and bush felling. That may be true at a Federal or State level, but they have introduced bureaucratic paperwork and procedures that make it near impossible. They kill things by binding it up in a quasi-legal process. Permissions, appeals, notifications, restricted periods, over the top resource requirements. They stopped the clearing of firebreaks in the parks – unintended consequences of trying to save the wildlife. All the opposition killed the work, of which the consequences are now being reaped, but one they can claim that it wasn’t them who were at fault.”

The 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission recommended that a minimum of 5% of public land in Victoria should be burnt off annually, as part of a scheme of hazard-reduction (previously, land burnt-off was less than 2%).

However, that recommendation has been ignored by both Liberal and Labor state governments (no doubt, past and present governments have been influenced by the lobbying of environmentalists). A 2019 article by Ben Knight noted that:

“In the past three seasons, the number of hectares burned nosedived from 185,000 down to 65,000. In the current season, just 2,100 hectares have been burned off so far and 5,200 hectares have been given mechanical treatments.”

The Volunteer Firefighters Association issued a media release in 2013 which stated:

“The Volunteer Firefighters Association (VFFA), the body representing the Voice of Volunteer Rural Firefighters in NSW refutes the claim by green alarmists that climate change is the cause of the recent bushfires in New South Wales.

It’s ridiculous to blame climate change when we know there has been far worse bushfires stretching back to the earliest days of European settlement in Australia

…The VFFA is angered by comments from the green lobby groups that tackling climate change was more important than prescribed burning of forest fuels to reduce bushfire risk. The real blame rests with the greens and their ideology as they continue to oppose and undermine our efforts to conduct hazard reduction in the cooler months and to prevent private landowners from clearing their lands to reduce bushfire risk.

…The amount of ‘green tape’ we have to go through to get a burn approved is beyond frustrating; says Peter Cannon. The VFFA is calling on the NSW State Government to reduce the amount of green tape involved in planning and conducting hazard reductions, so that our Volunteer Firefighters can get on with the job of conducting fire prevention works in the cooler months to prevent the inevitable summer bushfire disasters that are now becoming a more regular feature.”

Greenie activists and mind-numbing bureaucratic over-regulation are a big problem faced by land owners who want to protect their properties by burning-off; it’s not “climate change” stopping the preventative burn-offs.

Greenie activists versus preventative fire breaks
Campaigning by Greenies has had an impact on various cowardly bureaucrats and governments who lack the moral fibre to stand up to leftist radicals.

Social commentator Lou Stung wrote on Gab:

“If people are able to clean up, clear bush, camp, shoot and have an impact on the environment as humans are supposed to then you won’t have fires that are so severe. …At the end of the day though everyone knows that the Greens are the lunatic nannies of the nanny state that we have here.”

It is apparent that environmental activists (Greenies) have an impact on fire reduction schemes. How many times Greenies have used lobbying or protesting to halt burn-offs, or to have the area of burn-offs reduced, is unknown. However, an example of the impact that even a small protest may have can be seen in an ABC post on Facebook (23 October 2019):

“Yesterday’s planned burn at Nelsons Road, Nowa Nowa has attracted opposition from the local community, which also protested against planned burns last month.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning’s original plan was to burn 370 hectares at Nowa Nowa but reduced it to nine hectares.”

Of course, when the ABC says “local community”, that doesn’t mean that the whole community turned out to protest, as might be inferred; indeed, when the Leftist-dominated ABC uses phraseology such as “local community” or “community activists” those phrases can pretty much be translated as “Greenie activists” or “Leftist activists”. Compare ABC stories on Leftist activists to their reports on Nationalist activists and the inherent bias at the ABC will be obvious.

Interestingly, a Facebook post from the ABC — about protestors disrupting a planned burn in Nowa Nowa — has now mysteriously disappeared from their social media page; but, thanks to the magical wonders of the internet, it has been saved and is available to view elsewhere. The ABC photo shows two elderly activists holding up signs saying “Spring burns kill baby birds alive” and “Stop burning nesting birds”.

Protests have been held in other places, demanding that planned burns be stopped.

The propaganda of the Greenies that “climate change caused the bushfires” has been proven to be a falsehood. As James Delingpole wrote:

“there is zero evidence of any change in climatic conditions that might have increased the likelihood or severity of these bush fires. This is not — repeat NOT — a man-made climate change story, and anyone who claims otherwise is either a gullible idiot or a lying charlatan.”

A former CSIRO bushfire scientist, David Packham, stated in 2015 that three decades of “misguided green ideology”, vested interests, political failure and mismanagement had caused a worsening of fuel levels in the Australian bush, leading to a terrible threat of bushfires. Packham said that the fuel reduction target needed to be “doubled or preferably tripled”, and warned that, if it wasn’t, “a massive bushfire disaster will occur. The forest and alpine environment will decay and be damaged possibly beyond repair and homes and people incinerated.” He was right.

The voice of the people (they’re not impressed by Greenies)
Thanks to the power of the internet, rather than being restricted to the outpourings of the mainstream media, politicians, and government officials, we have the opportunity to listen to the voice of ordinary people; for example:

Martin Clark has stated that there are problems with the council in his area:

“The local government has a local law intended to limit nuisance but is used inappropriately to prohibit burning. It does not have the capacity to override state law, but very few people seem to understand that principle so they accept it when the local council tells them otherwise.”

JohnB has illustrated how Greenie bureaucracy works:

““Policy” is set by Parliament and Councils under advice from Department “experts”. The “rules” that implement that policy are set by the bureaucrats in the departments. That is where the green sleepers are and as others have already pointed out, they organise the rules in such a way that certain things become impossible.”

As Greg Cavanagh has pointed out, it is the wider Green movement that is the problem:

“Actually, “they” are not necessarily the Green Party. It is the people who believe in the Green ideology, and they are in positions of power in local governments. They are specifically the ones who make local by-laws which prevent clearing undergrowth and other such nonsense.

“They” are also the locals in an area who protest and demonstrate and write media articles trying to force the hand of elected government.

Case in point; the Franklin Dam, and every other dam that’s been proposed in the last 20 years.”

TheFarmingEconomist told of his experience as a farmer:

“I’m a farmer and an economist. I live 100km south of Australia’s capital Canberra. We farm beef cattle.

My farm has bush fire on three sides encroaching to as close as 8kms. We have been on alert for two weeks.

The national park on my western boundary is mostly dense eucalyptus forest. It is more than 240,000 acres in size. It has not had hazard reduction burns in at least 20 years.

We work to keep eucalyptus out of our cleared pastures. I have one paddock adjoining the national park forest of around 50 acres where, which after rotating it out of production for two years, had eucalyptus regrowth that quickly took over. We are not allowed to clear this regrowth as the trees are more than 2m tall.

I would like to do a controlled burn in this paddock to reduce fallen tree limbs and grass before the bushfire gets here. This is allowed, but only if I have a 40m cleared boundary between the paddock and the forest, but I am not allowed to clear the boundary.

So we watch and wait. When the wind blows from the west we evacuate our children.

It is not climate change. It is stupid policy.”

AussieCol has made the following point:

“As the environmental movement has grown, so has the infiltration into government departments and local councils with their ideology placing more and more restrictions via red and green tape. …The noisy minority who have perfected influencing government policy to the detriment of the majority.”

Mike also noted the influence of the Greenie bureaucrats:

“Leader of the Greens – Di Natale said on radio the other day that the Greens never have and do not oppose fuel reduction measures. This may be their “current” policy but there is no denying that over the past several decades, removal of material from the bush, road sides etc has been frowned upon if not downright illegal. This is the direct result of “green” type ideas that everything must be left so as not to disrupt habitat.

I could take anyone down the road from me where there are mountains of material left untouched along the road. Mostly in the form of dead trees and branches. It may not be the greens directly but it most certainly is the same wide spread ideology that has pervaded almost every local council.

The chickens are now coming home to roost.”

James Clarke spoke about the cultural indoctrination and influence of the Greenies:

“No one is claiming that these handful of protesters is somehow responsible for the tragic fires in Australia. It is not these individuals, but it is the widespread culture in which these people thrive. This culture is pervasive across much of Western Civilization, from the indoctrination of small children to the highest levels of governments: Nature is good and beautiful. Humans are unnatural and, therefore, bad.

Some of the first commenters on this thread appear to be Australians reporting on their first hand experience with regulations that made it extremely difficult or impossible to legally protect their own property from bush fires. This topic isn’t about 10 people in Nowa Nowa, but about a whole culture of regulation and intimidation, largely fueled by environmental scare stories that are grossly inaccurate or just completely made up, and championed by the liberal media and liberal judges.”

Kim de Lacy gave “thanks” to the Greenies for what they’ve done:

“Thanks to all the Greens that have expanded our National and State parks. Thanks to all the Greens who have reduced controlled burns. Thanks to the Greenies who chained themselves to trees to get media attention.

Thanks to the media for giving them prime time to achieve their goals.

Thanks to the legislation to stop roadside firewood collection. Thanks to the shires who won’t allow trees to be fell on private property. Thanks to the Government for stopping grazing in the High Country. Thanks to the lack of roadside grass cutting by shires. Thanks to the Greens for brainwashing the next generation ……and then you all have the audacity to blame climate change!”

The people have spoken!

Conclusion
The Greenies and their allies in state and local governments have been doing their best to stop, or minimise, planned burn-offs, even though such preventative measures can save human lives. Well-planned burn-offs can minimise the spread and severity of bushfires, but bureaucratic red tape (or “green tape”, as some would say), implemented or enforced by Greenies and their fellow-travellers have enabled the bushfires in Australia to be much worse than they otherwise would have been.

The Greenies won’t be changing their ways any time soon; they’ll just blame their mess on “climate change”, and shrug off any responsibility for stopping the creation of decent fire breaks and halting fuel reduction all around the country.

Truly, all of these radical Greenies are an environmental disaster just waiting to happen.

References:
“Have more than a billion animals perished nationwide this bushfire season? Here are the facts”, ABC, 4 February 2020 [says 800 million animals killed is a conservative estimate]
“Blue Mountains resident fought for permission to hazard reduction burn for two and a half years”, 9 News, 13 January 2020 [re. Martin Tebbutt; Brian Williams]
“Fake News: “The idea that “greenies” … would oppose measures to prevent fires … is simply false””, WUWT, 11 January 2020 (Eric Worrall) [see comments by Chris Morris, 11 January 2020 at 6:21 pm; Mike, 11 January 2020 at 7:02 pm; Kim de Lacy, 11 January 2020 at 10:21 pm; James R Clarke, 11 January 2020 at 10:52 pm; aussiecol, 12 January 2020 at 12:37 am; Martin Clark, 12 January 2020 at 3:24 am; Thefarmingeconomist, 12 January 2020 at 3:28 am; JohnB, 12 January 2020 at 3:08 pm; Greg Cavanagh, 12 January 2020 at 8:59 pm]
“Local council restrictions make prescribed burning ‘almost impossible’, Sky News”,10 January 2020 [re. Martin Tebbutt, see video 2.25-3.00 min.]
“Farmers ‘should be able to protect themselves with firebreaks’”, Sky News, 7 January 2020
“If people are able to clean up…”, Lou Stung (Gab post), 7 January 2020
— see: “Saying “yeah its the fucken greenies fault the fires are so bad” is just another deflection…”, Phillip Cunningham (Gab post), 7 January 2020
“A statement about the 480 million animals killed in NSW bushfires since September”, University of Sydney, 3 January 2020 [updated 8 January 2020 re. estimate of 800 million animals killed]
“Delingpole: Environmentalists made Australia’s bush fires worse”, Breitbart, 2 January 2020 (James Delingpole) [Delingpole quote; also re. Liam Sheahan]
“Huge loss of animal and plant life expected due to bushfires”, News.com.au 1 January 2020 (Marnie O’Neill) [earlier estimate of 480 million animals killed]
“‘Illegally’ clearing his property cost him $100k in fines. But when the Black Saturday fires killed 173, his family and home survived while his neighbours died – so LIAM SHEAHAN asks, why can’t we control our own homes?”, Daily Mail Australia, 15 November 2019 (Josh Hanrahan) [re. Liam Sheahan]
“More backlash to planned burns at Nowa Nowa”, ABC Gippsland (Facebook post), 23 October 2019
“Fire management out of control”, Environment East Gippsland, 15 June 2019
“Winery owner who ‘begged’ for fuel reduction burns loses everything in Bunyip fire”, ABC News, 5 March 2019 (Damian McIver and Isabella Pittaway) [re. Andrew Clarke]
— also at the VFF website
“Former fire chief calls for more planned burns as fuel loads reach Black Saturday levels”, ABC News, 7 February 2019 (Ben Knight)
“Green ideology, not climate change, makes bushfires worse”, The Daily Telegraph [also in The West Australian, both subscriber-only], 5 March 2019 (Miranda Devine) [re. nesting birds]
— also at the VFF website
— also at John Ray’s “Australian Politics” blog, 31 December 2019
“Don’t blame fire crews or climate, it’s FUEL”, Volunteer Fire Fighters Association, 9 March 2019
“Wildlife killed by department burn in fauna reserve”, Environment East Gippsland, 17 July 2017
“Burning off our biodiversity: breaking every rule in the book”, Environment East Gippsland, October 2016 (John Edwards)
“Petition – Immediate halt to planned burns – review fire management policies”, Environment East Gippsland, 7 October 2015
“Bushfire scientist David Packham warns of huge blaze threat, urges increase in fuel reduction burns”, The Age, 12 March 2015 (Darren Gray) [re. David Packham]
“The Links between Cattle Grazing and Fuel Reduction in the Grazing Zones of the High Country”, Mountain Cattlemen’s Association of Victoria, 2015 revised edition (first published February 2010), pp. 8, 10, 19
“Victoria bans Alpine National Park cattle grazing”, The Age, 28 December 2014 (Liam Mannix)
“Environment East Gippsland’s Forest Update”, Environment East Gippsland, 10 April 2014 [re. the “questioning many of the planned burns” quote]
“Green Tape Prevents Volunteer Rural Firefighters from Reducing Bushfire Risk” [VFFA Media Release], Volunteer Fire Fighters Association, 3 September 2013
“Let’s tell the burning truth about bushfires and the ALP-Greens coalition”, The Daily Telegraph (from The Sunday Telegraph), 13 January 2013 (Miranda Devine)
“Green ideas must take blame for deaths”, The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 February 2009 (Miranda Devine)
“Final Report: Summary”, 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, July 2010, p.15 (p. 25 of the PDF)
“Bushfires, Hazard Reduction and Backburning”, The Greens [undated]
“Roadside Firewood Collection Permits”, Federation Council (NSW) [main office in Corowa, NSW]
“Removing firewood from national parks is illegal”, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, 28 July 2017

References re. the deleted ABC Facebook post:
“Planned burn protest” [copy of ABC Gippsland post on Facebook], Wayne Gore (Facebook post), 3 January 2020
— “ABC deleting facebook posts on how protesters stop prescribed burns “more worried about climate change” than wildfires”, Jo Nova [1 January 2020]
— “ABC deletes story about climate protesters halting protection burns prior to devastating bushfires”, The Caldron Pool, 1 January 2020 (Evelyn Rae)
— [URL of the missing ABC Facebook post]
— [mobile phone URL of the missing ABC Facebook post]
— “Burn-demo-1”, [screenshot of the text of the Facebook post, part 1]
— “Fire-protest-II” [screenshot of the text of the Facebook post, part 2]

See also:
— “Protesters Have Halted Planned Burns In Two Locations Today”, TR FM, 4 September 2019
— “Public safety at risk as protestors halt planned burns”, DELWP Gippsland [Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning post on Facebook], 5 September 2019
— “This happened back in 2018. The ABC reported on the incident but have since deleted their posts after it was shared on social media yesterday”, Evelyn Rae [post on Twitter]
— “Why forests are allowed to build up fuel loads to the dangerous levels that guarantee a super hot out of control blaze that will consume everything in its path at some point in the future. They are called Environmentalists or Greens”, Powerglobal [post on Twitter]
— “Greenies on hazard reduction burns”, Michael Smith News, 1 January 2020
— “Community rally at DELWP Bairnsdale for greater protection of biodiversity in planned burns”, Gippsland Environment Group, 20 May 2018
— “Australia Bushfires: Green Tape Prevents Volunteer Rural Firefighters from Reducing Bushfire Risk. Oh, and Australia has a Firebug Problem”, The Enigma Chronicle, 5 January 2020

Further reading:
“Green insanity, not climate change, is causing Australia’s wildfires”, LifeSite, 13 January 2020 (Viv Forbes)
“Delingpole: Australian ‘Climate’ Fires Are Pure Fake News Propaganda”, Breitbart, 12 January 2020 (James Delingpole)
“Bushfires have nothing to do with climate change, says scientist and bushfire expert”, The Caldron Pool, 5 January 2020 (Ben Davis)
“The bushfires have nothing to do with ‘Climate Change’”, The Caldron Pool, 27 December 2019 (James Jeffery)
“The Indian Ocean Dipole is making Australian bushfires worse and increasing locust swarms in Africa”, 30 January 2020 (Bridget Fitzgerald)
“Australian police say arsonists & lightning to blame for bushfires, not climate change”, Summit News, 3 January 2020 (Paul Joseph Watson)
““Strike force to investigate whether NSW bushfires were deliberately lit: Police are now working on the premise arson is to blame for much of the devastation caused this bushfire season”, 7 News (Facebook post), 3 January 2020
“Green arrogance burns fiercely”, The Daily Telegraph, 8 January 2013 (Miranda Devine)
“Catastrophic Fuel Loads, More Bad Fires, More Business”, Volunteer Fire Fighters Association [5 September 2015] (Dr. Christine Finlay)
“Under NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act removal of dead wood & debris is a “key threat” to wildlife – apparently fire isn’t????”, Michael Smith News, 5 January 2020
“From Viv Forbes – put foresters back into our forests”, Michael Smith News, 4 January 2020
“Fire policy shift: Government says “hazard reduction” to stop fires. Labor says “Carbon market””, Jo Nova, January 2020
“Australian bushfires much worse in 1974/5, 9 January 2020”, Not A Lot Of People Know That (Paul Homewood)
“John Howard defends Scomo from Leftist hate-storm”, The Unshackled, 8 January 2020 (Lucas Rosas)
“Fears that hazard reduction burns near school redevelopment could hurt pygmy possum population”, Daily Telegraph [from the Manly Daily], 7 September 2017 (Robbie Patterson)
“The native Australian bird that is making the bushfire crisis worse by picking up embers and dropping them in dry fields to flush out their prey”, Daily Mail Australia, 2 January 2020 (Louise Ayling)
“As bushfire and holiday seasons converge, it may be time to say goodbye to the typical Australian summer holiday”, The Conversation , 5 January 2020
“Premier, fire chief exasperated at reports funding has been cut to NSW RFS”, Daily Telegraph, 11 November 2019
“CFA volunteers want their own ombudsman to police complaints of bullying”, The Age, 31 December 2019 (Paul Sakkal)
“Victorian fire services bill brings shake-up for MFB and CFA, and a test for Daniel Andrews”, ABC News, 21 June 2019 (Richard Willingham)
[Meme re. bushfires on social media], Gab
“Fueling the bushland”, Chris Dynon (video on YouTube), 29 December 2019 [see the locked gate on the track, at 3.14 min.]
— also available on: Chris Dynon’s Facebook page (video), December 2019