Category Archives: Fire Management

Mapping Kalimna’s weeds

Following our efforts to persuade authorities to concentrate fuel reduction efforts on areas close to settlement, and to integrate them with weed clearance [see our post Weeds are for burning, Feb 21], FOBIF has proposed a weed mapping project for … Continue reading

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Fire: what’s the Code of Practice?

In preparation for the Bendigo Meeting of April 18 [see our post below], Environment Groups were supplied with a briefing by the Environment Defenders Office on the various legal obligations governing DSE’s fire management. The document is printed below, slightly … Continue reading

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A lot of fires are being lit, but what’s being achieved–and how would we know?

Bendigo region conservationists, including FOBIF, met with DSE officials last Wednesday April 18th,  to discuss current and future fire operations. The meeting did not discuss State Government fire policy. It was solely concerned with the implementation of this policy, in … Continue reading

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Tarilta: ecological burning in question

We have received a second reply from DSE’s Paul Bates on the subject of the Tarilta management burn [see below]. In addition Ewan Waller, DSE’s Chief Fire Officer, fielded questions on the subject on ABC radio on Friday March 30. … Continue reading

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Fire: who knows how to use it?

DSE Chief Fire Officer Ewan Waller claimed on ABC Radio on March 30 that one of the aims of his department is to create a ‘pre European’ forest structure by using fire. This seems to suggest that he is familiar … Continue reading

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DSE answers on Tarilta fire

Last week FOBIF secretary Bernard Slattery wrote to DSE Bendigo to express our concerns about Tarilta Gorge, in particular the massive soil loss resulting from the Department’s management burn [see our post].We’ve received the following answers to our questions from … Continue reading

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Tarilta questions

Following our visits to the DSE burn site in the Tarilta Gorge [see our post] we have written to DSE management in Bendigo seeking a response to the following questions: 1. Last year in our submission on fire zones we … Continue reading

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Bendigo fire meeting

FOBIF was represented at a meeting in Bendigo on March 7 with DSE land and fire community engagement officer Simone Blair. The meeting was organised by the Bendigo and District Environment council. The meeting was an opportunity for community groups … Continue reading

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Walkers observe the effects of a Fuel Reduction Burn

Forty-five walkers set out from the SEC Dam Track in Green Gully on 21 March for the first FOBIF walk of the year.  It was not the normal scenic bushwalk as the route was mainly through areas of the Muckleford … Continue reading

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Tarilta Gorge: burned off, washed away

It’s sometimes hard to know what to call DSE burning operations: control burns? Fuel reduction? Ecological burns? Too often none of the above apply: there’s little control, apart from keeping the burn inside the control lines [and as we know, … Continue reading

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