The Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate’s Parks and Conservation Service has opened its draft 10-year regional fire plan for public feedback.
Likewise the ACT Emergency Services Agency (ACTESA) has also opened its new fire management zones for public comment, with both plans being the subjects of community meetings to be held in coming weeks.
Director of the Parks and Conservation Service, Daniel Iglesias said the draft Regional Fire Management Plan outlined how bush and urban areas would be managed while large parts of the region recovered and regenerated from the 2019-2020 bushfire season.
“It outlines the different ways the ACT will manage the fuel load in different fire risk zones across our parks, commercial forests and nature reserves,” Mr Iglesias said.
“The plan is based on new modelling technology to keep Canberrans safe from future bushfires while protecting our threatened species and ecological communities,” he said.
“The catastrophic 2019–2020 bushfire season demonstrated that we must continue to be proactive in mitigating the risk of bushfire impact on life, property, and the environment including important cultural assets.”
Mr Iglesias said strategic bushfire management zones and the Regional Fire Management Plan were crucial to mitigating the risk of bushfires and the community could have a say on the Plan until 7 May.
ACTESA Commissioner Georgeina Whelan said the Agency’s updated bushfire management zones reflected the changing environment and growing population of the Territory.
“They were identified using the best information we have on vegetation, fuels and location in the landscape,” Commissioner Whelan said.
“The asset protection zones are largely within and around the city, providing a defendable space to allow residents and firefighters a degree of safety before, during and after a bushfire,” she said.
Commissioner Whelan said strategic bushfire management zones helped reduce the intensity and spread of fires across large areas of landscape and included easy access points such as fire trails, roads and creeks.
The Parks and Conservation Service’s online Draft Plan, including information on how to have a say, can be accessed at this PS News link and ACTESA’s updated bushfire management zones at this link.
