There have been two AG meetings since the last newsletter, both relating to prescribed burning.
On June 9, a wet and freezing day, as convenor of the Advisory Group I hosted a meeting and excursion to look at the sites of some of the areas that had been burnt some weeks earlier. The invitation to attend was issued to people interested in the biodiversity aspect of prescribed burns. In the end we had a group of around 30 people – AG, FOGG, VNPA, Wilderness Society, Hamilton Field Nats and PV/DSE.
We started with a general discussion. Mike Stevens explained that the Code of Practice was the governing document outlining responsibilities etc. and that it contains the Fire Protection Plan which in turn outlines the zoning which governs some basic principles e.g.
Zone 1 – Burns for asset protection
Zone 2 – Burns to create strategic breaks to break up the landscape
Zone 3 – Broad landscape burns for environmental and/or fuel management
Zone 4 – Burns for environmental objectives e.g. to create suitable habitat for the Heath Mouse
Zone 5 – No prescribed burning e.g. Reference areas and Smoky Mouse habitat.
Zone 4 burns are related to the Fire Ecology Strategy (the first draft of which is due in August) which outlines discrete units in the GNP for fire management. Some units are for ecological purposes and some for fire protection. The units are broken up to create diverse age classes.
Questions and suggestions followed such as:
Can the burn objective be added to the Fire Operations Plan (FOP) in terms such as tonnes per hectare and whether the results of burns could be incorporated into the next FOP. Some form of “qualification” of what the treatment has achieved. The outcome of the burns was currently not being communicated back to the general public.
Do we have the necessary science to know what’s best for Zone 4? How much of our information has been based on hard data such as the results of flora and fauna surveys? Mike said
not much and that there was potential to undertake much more survey work.
How do we know that what is shown on fire history maps as long unburnt is correct? Are we were ground truthing and correcting burn history information. DSE said that some work was being done on fire history mapping.
Is there any mechanism for capturing knowledge from groups like the Hamilton Field Nats? There is a lot of informal knowledge around that really needs to be incorporated into the Fire Ecology Strategy.
We then headed out to look at the Geerak track burn. This was a patchy burn where Parks were pleased with the outcome. They had experimented with using a spray line to thoroughly wet an area in the centre of the burn. We travelled in shared cars in convoy, and it was raining so it’s difficult to report on the on site discussions. We had intended to look at two more burns (Dunkeld Rd & Henty Highway) but ran out of time. We adjourned to the warm cafe in Dunkeld to continue our discussions.
where are we at with Flora and Fauna surveys and what is going into the Fire Ecology Strategy.? By next year there should be more “flesh on the bones”. Mike said he would send out a one page draft/summary of the Fire Ecology Strategy.
If we had burnt Geerak Track a week earlier we would have got a much fierier burn. Dave Handscombe (PV) said that we plan for suitable fuel moisture before we burn. At the Dunkeld Road Burn we did a lot of rakehoe line protection around large habitat trees. Generally the burning season strategy is to start with some of the smaller burns.
There was no post burn monitoring at Geerak Track but at the Henty Highway burn there would be pre and post burn monitoring of key indicator species.
There was a request to see some of the monitoring results distributed to the public. Lauren Butterfield (DSE) said
that DSE have employed a Fire Ecology Strategist and one of their tasks would be to prepare information sheets to go out with the draft FOP. The comment was made that Greening Australia in WA put displays up in libraries which made the information more accessible to the general public. Lauren said that DSE & PV did a display at the Wimmera Field Days two years after the Mt Lubra fire.
Why do spring burns when there is such a disruption to flora and fauna?PV – There are positives and negatives to spring burns – there are greater moisture differentials. The Dunkeld Rifle Range burn was moved from spring to autumn when we were notified of the presence of a rare orchid at the site.
Neighbours of the Carters Track burn were asked what they thought of the management of the Carters Track burn. They said that there was always a degree of concern with local residents but that they were pleased to hear that we are doing something about protecting the big trees.
The question was asked: if hectare numbers aren’t met what happens? Dave said that if conditions are not right we sometimes defer, and bring forward another appropriate burn from the FOP. Wildfire events do not count towards the total hectares per annum that we are required to burn.
Time ran out and the discussions had to end. There was general agreement that the day had been well worthwhile, that it should be repeated next year without repeating too much of what was covered this time, that it should start earlier to allow for more time at the burns themselves. We were asked if there was a formal process for providing feedback and I’m not sure what the answer was, but I promised a full report in this newsletter.
The AG met again in August to look at this year’s Fire Operation plan, but I was an apology and haven’t received the minutes yet, so I can’t report back on that. Our next meeting is in November at Wilson’s Prom NP with their Advisory Group.