whitefang wrote:north-north-west wrote:Moondog55 wrote:Widescale aerial bombing should actually be more eco-friendly as each pingpong ball should only burn a spot about 200m>2; the theory being that each flame front meets and burns out before the fire gets too hot
Having been caught in the middle of one such event, I can assure you that it does not work like that on the ground, even in somewhat damp terrain.
Aerial ignition is done in different ways depending on the site. You should have never been put in that situation where you were caught in it. As a crew member during prescribed burning you should not be out of a vehicle if ignition is being undertaken with a drip torch and only on clear tracks with incendiaries.
I wasn't a crew member, I was walking. And when enough charges are dropped in an area, they connect readily. Thus you get large sections of ground burnt out with nowhere left for the wildlife to migrate.
None of this is done in the pattern of the burning by Aboriginal groups which created many of the landscapes and ecosystems we have today. And those are the patterns we should be following, as they are what those ecosystems have adapted to.
