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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 9d

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...

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 12d

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!

Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 13d

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.

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 13d

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.

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 17d

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.

Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 17d

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...

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.

www.abc.net.au

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 17d

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...

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…

www.sbs.com.au

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 23d

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!

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 24d

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.

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 24d

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?

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 24d

"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...

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.

www.abc.net.au

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 27d

"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.

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · 27d

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...

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Sep 6

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

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

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Sep 3

An internal grant from my university to support parents continuing their research while on a career gap. And yes, seeing what one comes up with is the point of research. Go well Ben!

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Sep 3

Yup, have gotten some (independent) funds to get a research assistant to collect that data while I'm on paternity leave for six months. Thanks for unblocking me to ask this.

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Aug 21

Great to see the Guardian picking up this great new research on forest density and based off decades of silvicultural measurements in Victoria.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Victoria’s mountain ash forests could lose a quarter of ‘giant’ trees as temperatures rise

Eucalyptus regnans – which regularly reach 60 to 80m tall – lose about 9% of their trees for every degree of warming, research finds

www.theguardian.com

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Aug 15

"Third, we need national environmental standards to provide a basis for the commonwealth to accredit state decision-making processes, permitting the streamlining of project approvals."

Call me crazy, but that sounds like the (in)famous Regional Forest Agreements.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Fixing Australia’s broken environmental laws must be the first step in improving productivity | Ken Henry

There is no chance of Australia becoming more economic resilient if we don’t have robust national laws that set clear environmental standards

www.theguardian.com

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Aug 11

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Why suppressing all wildfires has made today’s megafires worse

Satellites, drones and artificial-intelligence tools can improve fire management — but they must be informed by wildfire science, or we risk worsening the problem for decades.

www.nature.com

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Aug 8

"Alpine Ash in Victoria’s Native Forests Silviculture Reference Manual will support DEECA’s Forest Fire and Operations Division’s forest health initiatives for these vulnerable communities."

www.forestsandreserves.vic.gov.au/initiatives/...

New manual helps Alpine Ash forests

Bill Paul is helping protect Alpine Ash forests by supporting forest health initiatives through his work on the Silviculture Reference Manual.

www.forestsandreserves.vic.gov.au

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Aug 5

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Throwing fuel on the fire? Contrasting fine and coarse fuel responses to windthrow in temperate eucalypt forests in south-eastern Australia

Windthrow is a disturbance in south-eastern Australian forests which significantly re-arranges forest and fuel structure by removing canopy trees. The…

www.sciencedirect.com

Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Aug 5

This generally follows a similar pattern we saw in the Wombat Forest, where the increase in grasses represented an increase in near surface fine fuels.

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Aug 5

Some interesting work from the Arthur Rylah Institute of the Vic Govt - longitudinal records of understorey change following severe windstorm in the Dandenong ranges. General increase in wiregrass and understorey owing to increase in light availability.

www.ari.vic.gov.au/__data/asset...

www.ari.vic.gov.au

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Aug 2

Super interesting paper - small scale community sawmills in Mexico ended up having positive effects on reducing deforestation and increasing reforestation. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Community sawmills can save forests: Forest regrowth and avoided deforestation due to vertical integration of wood production in Mexican community forests

Integrated conservation and development efforts in low- and middle-income countries have emphasized the devolution of forest management to local commu…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Tom Fairman @itsnotfairman.bsky.social · Jul 31

New paper out! This is a big, interdisciplinary reflection on the types of challenges that are likely to come our way in the context of wildfires in the next 50 years. Was fun to write this one. authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Interdisciplinary challenges for wildfire futures

Wildfire has shaped many ecosystems across Earth, and humans have in turn shaped fire and its interactions within a range of socio-ecological systems.…

www.sciencedirect.com

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