THE Country Fire Authority (CFA), Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV) and Parks Victoria carried out planned burns along Old Ararat Road and the Blackwood-Dunkeld Road in Dunkeld earlier this week.
The CFA’s Planned Burn Taskforce was on site for the complex burn – the taskforce is made up of pool of 400 members who can be called on for planned burns across the state.
The taskforce, which was launched last year, enables necessary burns to go ahead when local members are unavailable and gives interested members more opportunities to take part in planned burns.
Crews from the Mornington Peninsula, Central Victoria, Melton, and Colac were on hand for the highly planned burn, which targeted fine dead fuel.
Due to the complex nature of the burn, qualified CR2 burn controller Mike Evans was brought in from Colac.
Mr Evans is one of only a few qualified CR2 burn controllers in Victoria and has been a member of the CFA for 35 years.
Mr Evans said the planned burn had been in the works for around 12 months, with an immense amount of planning needed to undertake a successful slow, low heat burn to ensure heavy fuel and heritage listed trees were not impacted by the burn.
Slow burns closely mimic the Cultural Burning practices of First Nations Peoples, which benefit the native grasses, help eradicate introduced species, and allow the wildlife to get away safety before the fire comes through.
The area on the side of Old Ararat Road and Blackwood-Dunkeld Road was identified by the land managers, Southern Grampians Shire Council (SGSC), as having high ecological value because of the number of heritage trees that line the roads.
“They (SGSC) want to put fire into the landscape to target introduced grasses and reintroduce native grasses into the area as well,” he said.
“We’re targeting fine dead fuels, which is the kindling in a wildfire … we’re removing the fuel load and giving some protection to the town.
“We use class A foam which is a water additive that wets those fuels around the base of the trees … to protect the root system and then under these very mild conditions we can burn a ring around those trees with a very low flame height and not much heat (which will) protect all that biomass under the trees.”
Mr Evans said organisations like the CFA, the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning, Parks Victoria, and Land Care have increasingly adopted the use of low intensity type burning, utilising the knowledge of Traditional Owners to further enhance best fire practice.
“Low intensity fire, gives the little creepy crawlies, the insects, the bugs, lizards, and those critters time to get to sheltered locations and then we’re not burning their home because we’re not targeting the heavy fuels or the duff layer,” he said.
“That low intensity heat and the carbon stays on the ground and provides nutrients for all the little plants that are going to come through, and also often cracks seeds of wattles and other seeds … you start to get more a monoculture of grasses in this location – you start to get back to kangaroo grasses and wallaby grasses that were here originally.
“By regularly burning, we can slowly reintroduce native grass back into the area and all the other biodiversity that goes with it.”
