Conservationists and experts say a government-lit prescribed burn was ignited during the nesting period of two critically endangered birds, likely killing nesting birds and newborn chicks.<\/p>\n
The Willmot-Quindinillup block in the Mt Roe National Park, about 380 kilometres south of Perth, is a “significant” breeding ground for endangered Carnaby’s black cockatoo and critically endangered Baudin’s black cockatoo.<\/p>\n
The block, about 50 kilometres north-east of the town of Denmark, was set ablaze in late September and burned on and off for several weeks, despite calls from conservation groups to delay the burn.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Endangered Carnaby’s cockatoos need large nest hollows to breed. (Supplied:\u00a0John Tucker)<\/p>\n
Birdlife WA spokesperson Vivian Read said the birds were known to live in the area and nested in the hollows of trees at this time of year.<\/p>\n
“It’s really significant for breeding, particularly; Borden breeds and Carnaby’s are also breeding and measured to be breeding in the area right now,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve got information from adjacent areas, and if we extrapolate out up to the area that we’re talking about, there’s somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 nesting hollows active this time of year in the 15,000-hectare area.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Environmental experts say the scale of the burn would surely have killed birds in the area.\u00a0 (Supplied\u00a0)<\/p>\n
‘Incendiaries in the maternity ward’<\/p>\n
Mr Read said the nesting period was the worst time to conduct a prescribed burn, with the fire, smoke and abandonment all potential threats to nesting chicks.<\/p>\n
“From a bird’s point of view, particularly from a cockatoo’s point of view, they’re nesting at this time of the year, and you don’t want to have a fire,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a bit like throwing incendiaries into the maternity ward.<\/p>\n
“The chicks, they’re just little fluff balls about the size of your fist at the moment, and they will be affected.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The edges of the block were burned from the ground before incendiary devices were later dropped from the air. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding\u00a0)<\/p>\n
The Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attraction (DBCA) said the 15,000-hectare site was a potential nesting site for Carnaby and Baudin Black Cockatoos.<\/p>\n
Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn said the DBCA had conducted an assessment before ignition, which found no cockatoo activity.<\/p>\n
He said the assessment was carried out by two DBCA staff who drove through the burn site over two days.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
DBCA says the burn site was pre-assessed over two days, but no hours were logged.\u00a0 (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding\u00a0)<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the DBCA said field data was collected, but a formal cockatoo survey report was not prepared.<\/p>\n
The length of time spent in the burn block assessing the area was also not logged by the department.<\/p>\n
Asked if the staff exited the vehicles and assessed any nests or hollows on foot, the DBCA did not respond and declined to provide any data or copies of its assessments.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hollows in a burnt tree in the Willmot-Quindinillup block.\u00a0 (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding\u00a0)<\/p>\n
Assessment below standard\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr Phil Runham, a field zoologist with more than 25 years of experience, said vehicle-based assessments were an accepted method for surveying for black cockatoos, but DBCA had fallen well short of industry standards.<\/p>\n
“The bare minimum the federal government guidance provides is 12 person-hours over six days; that’s the minimum required to just detect these birds in an area of 50 hectares or less,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Two days driving around in a vehicle to detect birds across 15,000 hectares doesn’t meet that minimum standard.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Phil Runham says the best practice for assessing fauna in the burn site was not followed.\u00a0 (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding\u00a0)<\/p>\n
Dr Runham said the federal guidelines were a minimum, and staff should have also conducted on-foot investigations to ensure no nesting birds were in the burn block.<\/p>\n
He said there was little doubt Carnaby’s black cockatoo and critically endangered Baudin’s black cockatoo had been killed.<\/p>\n
“I just can’t imagine that they haven’t killed birds,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The heat through the tops of those trees where these hollows are likely to be is going to be 100 degrees, 200 degrees, it’s going to be above a survivable limit.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Greens MLC Jess Beckerling wants the government’s burn practice reviewed. (ABC News: Cason Ho)<\/p>\n
Renewed call for oversight<\/p>\n
Greens MLC Jess Beckerling said the conflicting views of experts and the government on whether or not Carnaby’s and Baudin’s were present during the fire had reiterated the need for a review of the state’s burn practice.<\/p>\n
“No report was written and therefore no report was provided to us when we asked for it \u2026 it’s a deep concern,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The EPA made a recommendation a couple of years ago that there should be an independent oversight or independent review into the current prescribed burning methodology.<\/p>\n
“There have been calls over many years for there to be an independent assessment, and I think it’s obvious that there does need to be one.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conservationists and experts say a government-lit prescribed burn was ignited during the nesting period of two critically endangered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,173700,142649,118295,173701,140615,46285,75,173702,4271,173698,128,173699,45],"class_list":["post-304429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baudins-black-cockatoo","tag-birdlife-australia","tag-black-cockatoos","tag-bush-fire","tag-carnabys-black-cockatoo","tag-dbca","tag-environment","tag-fire-mitigation","tag-greens","tag-prescribed-burn","tag-science","tag-wa-forrest-alliance","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}