No one should be surprised that our bush is ablaze and our cities are smothered in smoke. For decades now, we have been locking up land, banning burn-offs, and encouraging eucalypt fire-trees.  On a hot day, the blue haze on distant timbered hills is highly flammable eucalypt oil vapor, waiting for a spark. The Australian landscape of open forests and treeless grasslands was developed and maintained under an aboriginal regime of continual small fires.  This was followed by planned cool-season burn-offs by European graziers. But a few decades ago, this safe black-and-white fire regime was replaced by green-worshipers who continually expanded the area of locked up protected parks (now over 11% of Australia). Then they peppered private land with protected-vegetation fire havens and hampered undergrowth clean-ups and burn-offs. This created many tinderboxes of eucalypt fire-trees waiting for a spark.  The spark could be a fearful landowner seeking...(Read Full Post)