MY wife and l had read in last Friday’s The Guardian (March 22) that Swan Hill Council started to remove willow trees on the Little Murray River, just upstream from the pioneer settlement.
Later on our morning walk, we stumbled across these works and were astounded with what we witnessed.
Council said in the article and on their website that they are “recognising the importance of preserving its ecological integrity” and “by reducing the presence of the willow trees, which are an invasive weed, we aim to preserve the biodiversity of this precious ecosystem and safeguard its long-term health.
What we saw were mud-encrusted green willow trees that had been pushed into piles with an excavator.
In a futile attempt to burn these trees, Swan Hill Council workers were throwing buckets of diesel fuel onto the piles and when the flame intensity died down, then throw on more fuel.
Now all of this was happening on the river bed, normally under water. It is environmentally highly questionable if fires should be lit in a river bed let alone to douse the area with toxic petroleum fuel. The area now reeks of unburnt diesel fuel.
Council also said the burn would be done with “best practices and safety protocols”, a totally misleading statement as the council workers throwing fuel onto the fires were wearing no special full fire resistant suits other than normal high vis work wear.
Common sense suggests that the trees should have been dragged to the top of the bank and put through a wood chipper as a tree removal company was actually on site to cut down the trees.
Will Swan Hill Council be reporting these breaches to the EPA?
How many thousands of dollars will the EPA fines and clean up cost?
Colin McKenzie
Swan Hill
