Fire planning starts again

Along with other interested parties, FOBIF has been invited by DEPI to express its ‘fire management priorities, issues or concerns as they relate to DEPI’s strategic fire management priorities, and also about fire prevention works’ in our area.
This is a standard annual consultation about the Fire Operations Plan and its implementation. It’s both a sensible method of consultation and an intensely frustrating merry go round: the important features of the burning program have already been set by

Highly flammable weeds, mainly gorse, on the northern edge of Chewton: FOBIF believes that public safety is best served by careful management of fuel close to settlements, not indiscriminate burning of large areas of remote bushland.

the State Government, and any submissions will necessarily be picking at details of  the Plan. Nevertheless, FOBIF believes that fire managers are generally prepared to listen to community input, and for that reason we will be making a submission to the process. Our emphases will be essentially consistent with past submissions: we believe that dangerous areas close to settlement should be DEPI’s priority, and that where these include high quality bushland, especial care should be taken to protect biodiversity in any operation. Our most recent detailed submission on the Fire Protection Plan can be found here, and DEPI’s response to that submission here. Member suggestions about any aspect of the local fire plan are welcomed.