Victorian's mountain ash forests a time bomb

Friday 27 Jun 2025

 
Vast tracts of Victoria's alpine forests are one major bushfire away from oblivion, according to a growing number of scientists. Alpine ash, a tall eucalypt, is most vulnerable to fire because it takes at least 20 years to produce seed.

"There's probably about 80,000 hectares which is young forest currently and will be young forest for the next decade or so," University of Melbourne scientist Tom Fairman said.

Dr Fairman, a future fire risk analyst at the School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, has calculated that in the past two decades, half of the state's mountain forests have been ravaged by bushfire.

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Source: ABC
Image credit: Bob Beale / Wikipedia

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