Date Time AFPA calls on native forestry critics to drop weapons and join battle against climate change The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) says a landmark study into the Black Summer bushfires confirming timber harvesting operations do not increase bushfire severity, and that the biggest factor is climate change, is an opportunity for all sides of the native forestry debate to join together to fight the real threat to our native forests and threatened species. The report, The severity and extent of the Australia 2019-20 Eucalyptus forest fires are not the legacy of forest management just published in the Nature Ecology and Evolution Journal, was authored by a team of researchers led by Professor David Bowman from the University of Tasmania. As Professor Bowman told The Conversation their research found forest harvesting, “had little, if any, effect on the Black Summer bushfires. Rather, the disaster’s huge extent and severity were more likely due to unprecedented drought and sustained hot, windy weather” and “our research confirms the devastating role climate change played in the Black Summer fires.”