Burn rise proposed

By Kath Gannaway
THE bushfire prone areas of the Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges are included in a recommendation to triple prescribed burning practices.
The proposal to increase prescribed burning from 130,000 hectares to 385,000 hectares is one of 20 recommendations contained in a report from the Inquiry into the Impact of Public Land management Practices on Bushfires in Victoria.
The report was tabled in State Parliament on 26 June by the Parliamentary Environment and Natural Resources Committee.
Liberal Evelyn MP Christine Fyffe and a member of the committee said the inquiry has revealed what residents of the Upper Yarra Valley have known all along.
Describing the State Government’s management of public land as inexplicably foolish, Ms Fyffe said the committee found that the frequency and extent of prescribed burning in Victoria had long been insufficient.
“This has contributed to the size and force of the 2002/2003 and 2006/2007 bushfires,” Ms Fyffe said.
“When huge areas are decimated by fire, erosion can set in rendering these areas uninhabitable to animals. It becomes an environmental catastrophe.” Ms Fyffe said.
Committee chairman John Pandazopoulos MP said landscape scale prescribed burning would be required to prevent the intense bushfires the state has experienced this decade and called for a unified commitment to promoting the change of community attitudes.
The committee recommended a substantial increase in funding to engage skilled fire management staff for the burning and that the Government establish a clear and consistent bushfire fencing policy for damage from bushfire and prescribed burns in the future.
Mr Fyffe said the committee also found that the decline in local knowledge, skill, resources and infrastructure associated with the restriction of land uses has had a negative impact on the ability of relevant agencies to manage fire on public land.
“In line with other key recommendations of the report, I urge the Government to also change its policy to replace or compensate land owners for water taken from dams to fight fires. The current policy ignores the property rights of Upper Yarra Valley residents.”
She also called for a unified approach.
The bi-partisan committee held 17 public hearings throughout Victoria, including in Kinglake and Warburton and received a record number of submissions, including 257 written submissions and more than 700 proforma submissions.