Tassie burns

[tasdaz]

I am sure you are all aware of or have experienced the haze that has enveloped most of the state this last week. I could not believe the extent of it as I drove from Hobart all the way down to the Tasman Peninsula. At the time I had no idea what caused it but had an inkling and said to my friend that it was probably Forestry burning off. How right I was. And to think that they are trying to blame the poor land ownerfor this. How sad.

Whilst walking to Cape Hauy on Thursday they even started a burnoff near Fortescue plains and they certianly didn't reach 20,000 feet! I have a couple of photos I will share later of this. Sadder than this was the noticable areas of clear felling along the way in.

Here is a couple of interesting articles on it:

http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/tassie-burns/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/24/2226024.htm

I really hope that this is all worth the environmental impact it must be having.

[Speculator]

I am sure you are all aware of or have experienced the haze that has enveloped most of the state this last week. I could not believe the extent of it as I drove from Hobart all the way down to the Tasman Peninsula. At the time I had no idea what caused it but had an inkling and said to my friend that it was probably Forestry burning off. How right I was. And to think that they are trying to blame the poor land ownerfor this. How sad.

Whilst walking to Cape Hauy on Thursday they even started a burnoff near Fortescue plains and they certianly didn't reach 20,000 feet! I have a couple of photos I will share later of this. Sadder than this was the noticable areas of clear felling along the way in.

Here is a couple of interesting articles on it:

http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/tassie-burns/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/24/2226024.htm

I really hope that this is all worth the environmental impact it must be having.

Yeah..... but doesn't it make the nicest sunsets though!

[tasdaz]

Yeah..... but doesn't it make the nicest sunsets though!

It sure does, I hope you got some nice snaps as hopefully this won't happen again! The smoke was too thick here to get a sunset on many days... I can't say in all my years here have I seen a smoke blanket like this before... Is this really the green, pristine state that is portrayed?

Edit... Here are the pics

[slick41st]

My son and I were in the boat off Nth Bruny a couple fo weeks ago, and could hardly see 10-15km across the water due to the haze.

[flyfisher]

I was working in a high suburb of Hobart about 10 days ago and you couldn't see the Derwent River at about 4km. distant. You could smell and taste it and eyes became sore. There is a definite down side for walkers [and fishers] in the run off which occurs afterwards and I have seen it myself on a number of occasions.The ash and burnt sticks ,branches,stumps etc cause ground water to form black pools when rain falls which can then run into creeks and rivers together with dirt and silt which washes away due to lack of ground cover.
Later as regrowth occurs ,comes a cocktail of poisons like 1080,insecticides,herbicides etc.
None of this should be in our waterways.
I work in the building industry so am quite aware that forestry is necessary,and valuable, but public opinion is starting to make them at least look at changing their practices so maybe there is more to it all than just science.Maybe its just that we can do this so we will 'cos it gets more dollars,but hopefully next autumn they may have a better solution.
I know in Hobart we will look foreward to some clear autumn days instead of the 2 or 3 weeks of ruined weather we had this year.