Tom Fairman

This article feels pretty close to a type of truth-telling about how fire management in south-eastern Australia has been discussed and debated the last few years. For fire scientists and ecologists alike, there is much to pause, digest and reflect on here. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Developing evidence briefs for landscape fire management For evidence briefs to provide value to the ecological management and natural hazards community and to the broader public, researchers and practitioners need clear guidance on how briefs must be deve...

Humbled to bea part of this paper on principles for developing evidence briefs for landscape fire management. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

On this day that supports inclusive futures for women and girls in science, let's not forget all the women that were sidelined, ignored, or forced out of science because they:
- had children
- prioritised family/caring
- did science differently
- questioned boundaries & norms
- fought the patriarchy

Minding the forest gaps: uptake and use of single rope bridges over forest roads by arboreal fauna Loss of arboreal connectivity can be detrimental to many forest-dependent species. Mitigation efforts focus on restoring opportunities for movement of arboreal mammals via rope bridges and other cr...

'Minding the forest gaps: uptake and use of single rope bridges over forest roads by arboreal fauna'
Interesting to see this work on the use of rope bridges as a tool in production forests (rather than across large and major roads).
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

‘We shouldn’t be surprised’: bushfires in Victoria push threatened species to the brink The impact of fires on wildlife can be ‘catastrophic’, with some plant species feared extinct

Was glad to speak with The Guardian about the impacts of frequent fires on ecosystems, and bang my usual drum about the need for a state level strategy on how we manage the inevitable change that is going to occur to many forest ecosystems. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Opposition vows to overhaul state’s ‘flawed’ bushfire defences Two destructive megafires within six years has increased scrutiny of the Victorian government’s “residual risk” approach to fuel reduction burning.

“The debate doesn’t need to be ‘do we burn or not burn’. That is an old, simplistic debate. What we need to understand is how much we burn, where we burn and for what reason.”
www.theage.com.au/politics/vic...

'Cool burns' protect land from severe fire so why aren't more happening? Insurance has been a major stumbling block to the scaling up of cultural burning, but a breakthrough could be on the way.

"The concept of lighting a fire to maintain the health of a forest didn't enter into the legislation."
www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

High resolution LiDAR and environmental variables enable fine scale predictions of hollow-bearing tree abundance across a complex temperate forest landscape Hollow-bearing trees (HBTs) provide a critical habitat resource for hollow-dependent animals, many of which are threatened due to a range of natural a…

How many hollow bearing trees are in the forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria? Turns out about 1.5 million, with no difference between state forests and parks. This new paper is an amazing whole of landscape inventory of this crucial habitat resource. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Looks like you were right, @ianpennaoz.bsky.social!

Buried in yesterday's major announcements is that the State's land use assessment council, VEAC, is being wound up. The end of a long journey that began with the outstanding Land Conservation Council. www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/victori...

Managing public lands requires a new kind of leader Click on the article title to read more.

great editorial on risk aversion in forest management particularly on proactive fire management vs reactive fire suppression. Equally relevant to southern Australia. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Ending logging in Victoria now would save taxpayers $192m, budget office estimates The Greens asked officials to calculate the cost of shutting down the native forest timber industry immediately rather than 2030 as planned

Back in 2020 it was estimated by the Parliament Budget Office that an immediate shutdown of the same industry would cost $15 million in the first three years before savings would appear over a decade. Seems to have been an underestimate. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Interesting to see this report reporting that closing the native timber industry in Victoria has cost $1.5 billion (so far). It's good to contrast this to earlier estimates (and it's a gold thing I have a long memory!)

www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/victori...

Strategic fuel breaks: uses, features and perceived effectiveness in south-eastern Australia Fuel breaks are strategically placed modified strips of vegetation that are widely used within fire prone forests around the world. They are used for a range of purposes, including active fire supp...

Nice to see this expert elicitation on strategic fuel breaks being published. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

a man in a suit and tie says that 's great peacock on the bottom ALT: a man in a suit and tie says that 's great peacock on the bottom

How I feel about people thinking they are geniuses for putting the word "Great" in front of a generic descriptor of what's in that National Park

‘It’s become a bit meaningless’: why does Australia have so many new Great Walks? Whether a clever marketing ploy or truly great by nature, these walks are attracting hikers in increasing numbers

Finally someone is looking into the obsession with the word "Great" when it comes to natural assets. Same story for national parks - does my head in that we have a Great Otway, Great Koala, and Great Forest National Park (well that last one doesn't actually exist) www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...

Kirsha Kaechele spoke at the Forestry Australia conference last year and it was a real treat. She brings an insightful outsiders perspective to the otherwise mind numbing forest war debates. www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion...

Ah the grapevine, I'm not a subscriber. Tbh I've seen a lot of wild things said that appear to arise from it, but I may be proven wrong!

My point being, it feels like veacs/LCC role for many decades has been about allocating lands respectively between logging and parks. It's served other purposes but that was a major feature of Grampians, alpine, east Gippsland, box Ironbark, Otways, river red gum assessment etc.

Do you have a copy of the Silver report? I'd love to see it. I may be wrong but i didnt think VEAC influenced funding for PV? Beyond that - don't know what will happen. Though, with the end of logging, a lot of the rationale and distinction of national parks and state forests changes, in my opinion.

A review in 2021 showed that more tree fern tags from from the Otways in Vic than all of Tasmania. And Victoria collects no fee for tag which means there is no monitoring. Always baffled me where all these ferns come from - plantations as they are harvested? Private land? It's just so much.

Why Tasmanian ferns hundreds of years old are on sale in UK garden centres Thousands of native tree ferns are harvested from Tasmania's forests for export each year. Some say the trade saves ferns from destruction, while others accuse the industry of greenwashing.

Good to see coverage of tree fern sales. I tend to agree with Prof Baker in this - Tasmania's tree fern sale system seems pretty good, particularly in how it raises fees for tags which then goes to fund monitoring and research. Victoria is another story, though. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Opinions divided on how to save our precious mountain ash forests New research has found Australia's heat-stressed forests are rapidly thinning, and could even be producing carbon emissions. It comes as the government prepares to release its 2035 emissions targets and a climate risk report later this month. But local researchers, politicians and Traditional Owner…

Great to see the range of perspectives on how we manage ash forests for resilience in the future. Though I don't reckon opinions are divided in that we need new thinking and approaches. www.sbs.com.au/news/podcast...

True but it's a bigger systemic problem I think. I once got told by a prominent green politician they couldn't publicly ask for more funding for Parks as it would undermine their case for more National Parks. You can imagine how depressed and disillusioned that made me feel!

As a former parks staff once said to me - Parks don't acquire new parks, they get saddled with them. It's an odd model when you think about it - more and more expected from an agency that has less and less.

Near my hometown in the Dandenong Ranges NP, I think it took about eight years for a walking bridge to be fixed after some storms. And that was in a high tourism, high visitation park. So maybe 16 years for you?

Victoria set to have first new national parks in more than a decade Conservation groups are celebrating proposed legislation for three new national parks in Victoria but not all bush users are happy.

"Mr Dimopoulos said Parks Victoria had the funding required to maintain the new national parks.

"Parks Victoria are well funded and have all the resources they need," he said."

The same old story: more National Parks, and no new funding to actually manage them.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

"maintaining existing parks" doesn't sound very proactive. Unfortunately I think the focus for many years has been the political sugar hit that comes with announcing new parks, rather than the slightly duller but very important work in funding them and proactively managing existing parks.

The Victorian Government is establishing a suite of long promised national parks but quite interesting to see the last paragraph sends a pretty clear message about the prospect for any future parks. www.premier.vic.gov.au/best-bush-op...

Migrants and refugees thrive in jobs locals 'not comfortable doing' Ararat, like most regional towns, has an ageing population and a drift of young people to the cities. But a migrant resettlement program is reinvigorating the town.

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...