Draft Fire Operations Plan released

The draft fire operations plan for Murray Goldfields district has been released, and is open for public comment till August 31. The full plan can be found here, or can be seen at the Mount Alexander Shire offices in Lyttleton Street.

The Plan is similar to last year’s document, but contains some new proposed burns, mostly small in area, close to Castlemaine and Newstead.

Members are encouraged to have a look at the plan as a whole, and in particular the new proposed burns, and to express an interest in the areas they are most familiar with.

It should be noted that in spite of an increased interest in conducting small, strategic fuel reductions that might actually protect the public from bushfire, the government is charging ahead with its rolling target of burning five per cent of public land per year. The target for 2014-5 is 385,942 hectares; for each of the following two years it’s over 450,000 ha.

Submissions to the Plan should be sent to

Program Manager
Planned Burning and Roading
PO Box 905
Mildura VIC 3502
or to
loddonmallee.plannedburning@depi.vic.gov.au

FOBIF will be making a submission to the Plan in the next couple of weeks.