Draft Parks of Kangaroo Island Fire Management Plan consultation
Consultation closes 7 August 2023 - have your say!
National Parks and Wildlife Service is seeking feedback on proposed fire management strategies in the draft Parks of Kangaroo Island Fire Management Plan.
The objectives of this draft plan are to:
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reduce bushfire risk
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maintain and enhance biodiversity
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support bushfire suppression (firefighting).
Fire management strategies help achieve these objectives.
While the proposed fire management strategies focus on public land, they also help reduce bushfire risk to neighbouring properties and to ecosystems that continue beyond park boundaries.
A lot of local feedback has going into this drat Parks of KI Fire Management Plan and it is essential that locals have their say in its finalisation.
To have your say, you will need to register on the State Government MySAy website and complete the survey questions. There are 8 questions, so depending on how much detail you want to provide in your feedback it can take from 5 mins to complete. There is a link to an interactive map that shows the proposed strategies and timeframes.
We have put together a mini 'how to' guide which you can access HERE
Parks Fire Management Plan Summary
Key Info about the plan
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A 10-year plan that will provide strategic direction for fire management across national parks
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All strategies have been allocated to Stage 1, 2 or 3 to spread the workload.
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The draft was developed with involvement from DEW, BOM, SA Water, local CFS, KI landscape board, ecologists & environmental groups.
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Local experience & knowledge, scientific models, climatic data and fire history were all used.
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It is important to note that none of the individual strategies will stop or put out a fire on their own. The plan is designed to utilise several different strategies across the landscape to allow fire fighters quick access to the fire when it is small and a landscape that may naturally be able to slow and assist the control of a wildfire.
Figure 1: This plan covers all national park and conservation areas on Kangaroo Island.
Key Strategies in the plan
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Prescribed burning will continue to be a key tool in fire management.
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Asset protection & bushfire management zones – directly adjacent to assets to help protect the asset.
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Strategic fuel management zones – to create a mosaic pattern of different vegetation age to help slow and reduce the spread of wildfires.
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Conservation zones – areas that haven’t been burnt for a long time and are no longer suitable habitat for several of our endangered species.
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Exclusion Zones – specific areas which were not burnt in 19/20 and are important to protect until the burnt vegetation recovers.
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New fire access tracks in the Ravine Wilderness Protection area. These are a key component of this plan.
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This northern area has the highest frequency of fires anywhere on the island. Mostly been burnt 6-8 times since 1931.
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Mostly along dozer lines that were established in the 19/20 fires – proposed clearance is 2.45ha of vegetation (0.006% of the WPA)
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Break the block sizes from 22,000ha & 14,000ha into 5 smaller and two larger blocks.
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Provide quick access and smaller areas for firefighters to prevent small fires turning into raging inferno’s that can’t be stopped.
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The steep terrain and impassable creeks make putting dozer lines in during fires very slow.
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Figure 2: A Fire access track with a 12m fuel break to allow safe crew access.
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All fire access tracks & roads will also have a 12, 25 or 50m fuel break alongside which will make it safe for firefighters to go down these tracks immediately in the event of a fire.
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Upgrading of some of the fire access tracks to make them more accessible for fire fighters.
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Installation of 5 new 100,000L water tanks at strategic locations where water sources are a long distance away.
We strongly encourage you to Scan the QR code or visit www.yoursay.sa.gov.au/ki-parks-fire-management-plan to have your say!
You will already be registered & only need to login if you commented on the Parks Management plan in 2021.
