Due to unforseen circumstances we have had to make a change in the FOBIF walk’s program. Doug Ralph will now be leading the walk to Tarilta Gorge on 17 June and Malcolm Fyffe will be leading his Yandoit walk on 15 July. The 20 May walk in Chewton is unchanged. Check out the walks page on this site for more details.
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 the township side of Kalimna Park in Castlemaine. The proposal runs as follows:
The natural biodiversity assets of Kalimna Park are under constant threat from human actions:
Hardenbergia in Kalimna Park: the Park's proximity to Castlemaine makes it a rich asset, but also presents management challenges.
In addition, because of the Park’s proximity to housing, there is pressure on park managers to apply fuel reduction procedures which may damage the extremely high biodiversity values which persist in this part of the Park.
Aim of the Weed Mapping Project:
To support improved management of the park, a weed mapping project has been designed to identify the areas containing these weeds to assist the volunteer friends and the land manager (Parks Victoria) in their control.
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 edited, for members’ information:
Fire Management on Victorian Public Land and Community Consultation
This document briefly outlines the legislative basis for fire management on public land in Victoria. It has a particular focus on the role of prescribed burning and community consultation. It provides answers to the following questions:
The purpose of this memo is to help individuals concerned about the environment to understand how the law surrounding fire management, especially prescribed burning, and what place community consultation holds in this process.
Who is responsible for fire management on public land in Victoria?
The Department of Sustainability and Environment (the DSE) is the government body largely responsible for managing fire on Victoria’s public land.
Public land includes National Parks, State Parks, State forests and Crown Reserves.
The DSE is headed by the Secretary of the DSE, who is currently Greg Wilson.
The DSE’s specific responsibilities are set out in the following Acts:
The DSE’s fire management responsibilities are balanced by other responsibilities, such as its responsibilities to protect biodiversity, which are set out below.
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 the light of conservationists’ dissatisfaction with the way burns are being conducted.
The objectives listed below were put to DSE officers at the meeting. They would require managers to be very precise in their burn plans about how they will manage key risks and how they will take into account community submissions. They would also require the publication of clear assessments of each burn in the light of the plans:
Objective 1 – DSE to provide detailed mapping of each burn parcel, as listed in Appendix B of the Code of Practice, to identify a broad range of regionally specific ecological values.
Burned moss patch, Muckleford State Forest, March 2012. Moss is not flammable, and is sensitive to fire. It performs a valuable role in forming crusts which protect land from erosion and soil loss. Prescribed burns which destroy such patches do not reduce fuel, but they do damage the bush. Conservation groups in Bendigo want DSE to specify what its objectives are in burns--and to be open about what they really achieve.
Objective 2 – DSE to provide detailed fuel load mapping for each burn parcel and across each Fire Management Zone.
Objective 3 – To ensure the expectation for adaptive management in the Code of Practice is met, DSE to provide detailed responses to community Fire Operations Plan input, accurately describing how this has been incorporated within the approved burn plan.
Forty-one walkers set out from the Garfield Water Wheel in Chewton on Sunday on the second FOBIF walk for the year. Local geologist, Julian Hollis led the walk and everyone appreciated his explanations of the significant geological features in the area. The highpoint of the walk was Quartz Hill where people could explore a 30 metre mining tunnel and see other evidence of local mining which dates back to 1852.
Thirty-Metre Tunnel, Quartz Hill. Photo by Dominique Lavie, 15 April 2011
Sliding Fold, Quartz Hill. Photo by Frank Forster, 15 April 2012
More photos of Quartz Hill and surrounds can be found on Dominique Lavie’s Facebook page. An interesting history of mining activity at Quartz Hill can be found here.
FOBIF’s next walk on 20 May will also be in Chewton. It will include the Monk and a circuit taking in Cobbler’s Gully, the Herron’s Reef diggings and possibly the Crocodile reservoir.
White Everlasting Daisy (Chrysocephalum baxteri)
Slime Mould
Dunns Reef
Tall Greenhoods
Gnat Orchid
Blue Caladenia
Downy Grevillea (Grevillea alpina)
Coliban river upstream of the Gibbons bridge
Coliban river upstream of the Gibbons bridge.
Coliban river upstream of the Gibbons bridge.
Sailors Gully ruin
Loddon River near Vaughan
Cortinarius archeri
Mycena subgalericulata
Cortinarius rotundisporus
Cortinarius cystidiocatenatus,
Ramaria sp.
Pink Heath
Mount Alexander
Mount Alexander
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Click on image for info/order page
Click on image for info/order page