| Professor Ross Bradstock and Dr Kris French from the Faculty of Scien... Professor Ross Bradstock and Dr Kris French from the Faculty of Science are pictured before presenting at the final Uni in the Brewery session for 2007 |
Final Brewery session explores bushfire and ecosystems
4 Oct 2007 | Renee Criddle
The final Uni in the Brewery session for 2007 featured two presenters exploring some favourite myths about bushfires and discussing how planting trees is not enough of a solution for our ecosystem.
Director of the University of Wollongong’s Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires, Professor Ross Bradstock, discussed how bushfires are an integral part of the Australian environment. Most ecosystems experience fire with some regularity. He will explain how fires not only shape our environment but also our engagement with it as people.
“For many urban dwellers bushfires are things to be feared, while for many in the bush fires are part of life and the tool box used to extract a living from the land,” said Professor Bradstock.
“Not surprisingly, many of us have opinions about fire. And there are a lot of myths around ranging from sources of ignition to bouncing fireballs, exploding houses and the notion that the flora of Australia is adapted to fire.”
Professor Bradstock discussed these myths in details and helped his audience learn more about the complexity, beauty and transformative power of fire.
Dr Kris French from the Faculty of Science also presented at the session, discussing the creation of ecosystems and what we can do as well as evolution.
“In the haste to reverse our effect on the world we are planting millions of trees, looking to undertake biodiversity banking and instilling mitigation processes into developments,” she said. “And yet, the restoration industry seems stuck in a rut that is more like a gardening exercise than the creation of a functioning ecosystem. What’s missing? Why aren’t we successful?”
Dr French, who works in the School of Biological Sciences, discussed how she thinks some basic ecology is missing and presented four logical pointers about how our restoration efforts must change if we are to do anything but garden. She explained how it requires an industry-level change and an appreciation of what evolution did over millions of years.
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