Author Archives: fobif

Strategic fuel breaks: is it necessary to flatten nature to make our forests safe?

As we reported on August 16, DELWP is planning to create fuel breaks in this region, both near settlements and through bushland: ‘Strategic Fuel Breaks are a strip of land where vegetation has been permanently modified to reduce the rate … Continue reading

Posted in Fire Management, News | 2 Comments

In case you missed it…

ABC Television’s Gardening Australia program ran a segment on our local bushlands on August 20. The program, filmed on the Monk, packed a lot into its 8 minute duration. Local ecologist Cassia Read invited viewers to take a close up … Continue reading

Posted in News | Comments Off on In case you missed it…

Ian Higgins: A world lost…A world to regain?

The nature and function of peas The lush grasslands Major Mitchell called Australia Felix in 1836 were the starting point of Ian Higgins’s inspirational talk to the FOBIF AGM on August 9. The park-like scenes which so excited Mitchell were … Continue reading

Posted in Nature Observations, News | 4 Comments

Slime mould knows the way out of Ikea!

Here’s a curious note on slime mould research, from the London Review of books : ‘The mycologist Lynne Boddy once made a scale model of Britain out of soil, placing blocks of fungus-colonised wood at the points of the major … Continue reading

Posted in News | Comments Off on Slime mould knows the way out of Ikea!

Fuel management: the detail counts

FOBIF has made a submission to DELWP on the current fire management plan. The ‘fuel reduction’ burns currently planned can be seen on the Department’s excellent interactive map here. Our submission essentially related to the following: –We believe burns planned … Continue reading

Posted in News | Comments Off on Fuel management: the detail counts