Take action
Let's burn better!
Every year, up to 200,000 ha of forests and other ecosystems in the South West of WA are burnt by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA).
Whilst the prescribed burn program is intended to reduce the risk of wildfire, in reality, frequent fire is increasing flammability in some ecosystems as well as having profoundly negative impacts on biodiversity, climate and people’s health.
This issue has come sharply into focus with the Southwest forests suffering through the hottest and driest summers ever recorded. This has led to prescribed burns resulting in immense damage, as seen at the Giants East forest block near the famous Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk at the end of 2024. This prescribed burn destroyed over 180 ancient Tingle and Karri trees, highlighting the major flaws in the current prescribed burning program.
With a new WA Environment Minister, Matthew Swinbourn, and impressive new bushfire detection and suppression technologies, there are opportunities for the outdated program to change to protect biodiversity, as well as life and property. Now is the time to make our concerns loud and clear. Please ask the new Minister to enact urgent changes to better manage fire in WA’s forests.
Take Action
Use this email template to call on the Minister for Environment Matthew Swinbourn as well as Premier Roger Cook, Minister for Emergency Services Paul Papalia and Minister for Tourism Reece Whitby, to change the burn program and fund early detection and rapid suppression fire management systems. Enter your details and click start writing to edit your email.
Enter your details and click start writing to edit your email
Newmont Mine Expansion
US Company Newmont has proposed to clear a further 414ha of native vegetation to expand its gold mine near Boddington.
The area inclues Woylie, Numbat, Chuditch, and all 3 Black Cockatoos and a number of threatened flora are potentially present including the Quindanning Spider Orchid.
Newmont’s expansion is open for public comment to determine if it should be assessed by a controlled action under the Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. This is in addition to the previous comment to the State Environmental Protection Authority that determined the expansion requires the highest level of assessment, a Public Environmental Review.
Use our instructions to comment on the expansion before September 19th. Your comment doesn’t need to be long or incredibly detailed, and the process is simple.
Take action
1. Go to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation website.
2. Click on ‘Make Comment’
3. Fill in the required fields including your full name and email. The title for your comment can simply be ‘Newmont Boddington Controlled Action’.
4. Answer YES to ‘do you consider this a controlled action?’
5. Give reasons why you consider it a controlled action. The EPBC looks at Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES), in this case, threatened species.
6. Answer the remaining questions on updates, confidentiality and privacy and the declaration.
7. Add documents if you wish.
8. Submit.