Friends of the Grampians Gariwerd wish to make the following points in response to the Fire Operations Plan.
We would like to support the effort that has been made to use the information gained from the Fire Ecology Strategy plan “Biophysical Units for Fire Management” (prepared by the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of Ballarat) to underpin the determination of the areas planned to be burned over the next three years. For many years now FOGGS has stressed the need for science to be the guiding factor in planning for proposed burns and are pleased to learn that Parks Staff are now in a much better position to ensure they understand the potential ecological consequences of their decisions.
For this reason we are very concerned that sufficient money is provided to ensure that the burns proposed can be properly monitored both pre and post burn so that our understanding of fire and its affects is continually being added to. This is particularly important for burns proposed in the Victoria Range area where there are many sites of cultural significance which will need to be protected during the burns.
We would also like to raise our concern at the rigid 5% annual target for burns, we believe there should be some flexibility around this target. We are particularly concerned that the target takes no account of areas burnt through wildfires, for areas burnt from escaped planned burns or other non fire fuel reduction activities undertaken.
This inflexible approach to targets could lead to long term ecological damage being done. If, for example, we are unlucky enough to have another large wildfire in the park, other areas of the park may have to be burnt simply to meet this rigid 5% target when there is no strategic benefit and the area has too recently been burnt. This could result in loss of species who need longer to replace themselves after fire.
This inflexible approach is of great concern to the Friends as they believe ultimately it may undermine the more scientific approach to fire management which we have been so pleased to see better established in the Park this year.