Management burns to start soon?

Residents around the region have been letterboxed by DELWP informing them of the imminent start of the Department’s fuel reduction burn program. It’s so far been too dry to safely undertake these burns up till now, but it remains to be seen if the weekend’s rain will change this situation.

You can find a map of all local proposed burns here and an online copy of the Fire Operations Plan here

It’s important for all local residents to familiarise themselves with local burn areas, and especially to go and have a look at what the Department is proposing. It’s also important to go and see what they have actually achieved after burns have been completed. Recent improvements notwithstanding, DELWP’s record in creating crude and destructive fire boundaries, and its deplorable habit of unintentionally destroying large habitat trees isn’t great. One way of getting improvements in these matters is to increase public scrutiny of their work. We should never forget that the stated intention of these burns is ‘to minimise the impact of major bushfires and to maintain or improve the resilience of natural ecosystems.’ The second of these aims should not be neglected.

The most significant burn in our region, by far, is that proposed for Kalimna Park. This one was planned for last year, but could not be implemented for lack of appropriate conditions. For a justification of the burning of this part of the park, see Simon Brown’s response to our 2017 Post.