Wildlife rescue organisations in New South Wales have warned a new disaster response plan hasn't been completed almost four years after the Black Summer bushfires, leaving native animals at risk as summer approaches.
Key points:
- A national summit into disaster responses failed to invite native wildlife groups
- WIRES and the NSW Wildlife Council are dismayed at the oversight and what it means for protecting native animals
- The organisations say governments have failed to meet bushfire Inquiry recommendations
WIRES and the NSW Wildlife Council have said that a key recommendation from a bushfire inquiry into the 2019 Black Summer fires, which called for a new policy on the injured wildlife response, has not been implemented.
The organisations warned that inaction on emergency responses would leave native animals on the "cusp of another catastrophe".
An estimated three billion animals were killed or displaced during the Black Summer bushfires.
In the aftermath, the inquiry recommended that wildlife rescue be better integrated with overall emergency response.
But last month, wildlife groups were not among the nearly 300 attendees of the first National Disaster Preparedness Summit.
Disaster planning omission
WIRES and the NSW Wildlife Council said their omission meant wildlife protection was being cut out of bushfire planning.
NSW Wildlife Council chair Audrey Koosmen has expressed disappointment at the oversight.
"I'm absolutely disgusted. It is absolutely appalling," Ms Koosmen said.
"Billions, millions of animals ... we'll never know how many died, and the wildlife volunteer groups, nobody got invited to that conference."
Organisers, the National Emergency Management Agency, described the summit as "the first time all key stakeholders have come together to prepare for the coming higher risk weather season".
WIRES' national director of government relations Peter Stathis said it was disappointing wildlife rescuers were not included among the stakeholders.
"I'm sure in many aspects [the nation] is better prepared but for wildlife it is not," he said.
"Wildlife are at risk. We're on the cusp of another catastrophe."
A spokesperson for the organisers said it acknowledged the importance of wildlife conservation and rescue groups, and was considering ways to improve the event.
They said the scope of the summit was intended to test how prepared national emergency management and infrastructure was "to protect life and property".
Inquiry recommendations incomplete
WIRES and the NSW Wildlife Council have also argued that, beyond the summit, government agencies had not met the recommendations of the NSW Bushfire Inquiry.
Ms Koosmen, who also founded Hunter Wildlife Rescue, said that in 2019 and 2020 it took weeks for wildlife rescuers to access fire grounds, often with devastating consequences.
"One fire I went to, we couldn't find anything at first. Then we realised it was so hot that everything was cooked beneath us," she said.
"We were walking on ashes of animals. We found bones everywhere. We found a koala hanging from a tree, burnt, a skeleton."
Recommendation 53 of the inquiry called for a new policy on injured wildlife response, rescue, and rehabilitation in response to the major impact on wildlife.
The new policy would include a framework for how to work within emergency management structures, guidelines for incident management plans to include wildlife, and additional training for wildlife volunteers and firefighters.
A progress report from the premier's office published in June this year suggested that the recommendation had been addressed.
However, the NSW Environment Protection Authority, which is responsible for wildlife in emergencies confirmed the framework was still at development stage and wouldn't be ready for approval until December.
"It beggars' belief that someone has said that action is complete from the bushfire inquiry," Mr Stathis said.
"Those things haven't been done and those of us in the wildlife space know that."
A National Parks and Wildlife spokesperson said additional training has been provided for vets and firefighters, and grants distributed to wildlife rehabilitators.
They said the establishment of wildlife emergency response teams, which would allow trained wildlife carers to enter fire grounds, was "continuing" as was work on how wildlife response would be incorporated into existing fire incident procedures.
The addition of an anticipated technical advisor wildlife role was also still at the trial stage.
New season underway
Ms Koosmen said that as far as she could tell, there had been no change on the ground.
"I've just had two or three fires up here in the Hunter and I haven't heard from a soul," she said.
Ms Koosmen said after witnessing the trauma of the Black Summer fires she was dismayed at the progress, almost four years on.
Mr Stathis said that barriers faced during Black Summer remained in place.
"This year we'll have people who are frustrated wanting to be included in emergency response who can't gain access to fire grounds for weeks," he said.
"We'll have animals that will be in pain needlessly, that will die painful deaths when they could be given humane outcomes — that's the worst-case scenario."