Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2004). Fire-assisted pastoralism forms the dominant land use in Cape
York. Pastoralists tend to burn land to promote the growth of green grass
for their cattle to feed on. There are also extensive areas of Cape York
(approximately 14.2 per cent of the total land area of Cape York in 2004
and increasing annually - Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, personal
communication, 2005) set aside as national park and wildlife reserves under
the control of the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) who also
use i re as a signii cant part of their land management approach. They
justify their use of i re through a number of reasons including hazard reduc-
tion where, it is argued, burning available ground fuel (dry leaf litter and
so on) avoids the spread of wildi res later in the dry season, habitat man-
agement, including weed and pest management, and maintaining habitat
diversity. There are also several Aboriginal reserves where indigenous
communities are free to pursue their own traditional burning practices.
Despite the lack of consensus within the scientii c literature regarding
the environmental impacts of i re, environmental policy in Cape York
tends to be unquestioningly pro the use of i re as a land management tool.
This can be seen in both the policies of the Queensland Rural Fire Service
who are responsible for policing the use of i re in Cape York (RFS, 2001)
and the policies of those government departments with direct jurisdiction
over the management of areas of land there (see, for example, Grice and
Slatter, 1997; Gill et al., 1999; Marlow, 2000; QPWS, 2000; see also, for
example, DNR, 2001, 2004; EPA, 2002).
3
The Permit to Light Fire system operated by the Queensland Rural Fire
Service (Queensland State Government, 1990) provides that landhold-
ers can, in theory, be prosecuted if they light a i re outside the terms of a
Permit. The problem, however, has always been in proving who lit a i re.
Once a i re is lit on Cape York it has the potential, especially at dry times
of year, to burn for weeks or even months across hundreds of thousands
of hectares of land, therefore af ecting areas nowhere near where it was
i rst lit. The introduction of the Cape York Peninsula Sustainable Fire
Management Project has had some success in addressing the issue of
accountability. The project provides an online service
4
where i res on Cape
York can be tracked by satellite and thus, when cloud cover does not inter-
fere, the origin of i res can sometimes be identii ed. The attitude amongst
most stakeholders, however, tends to be very much that if the i re is on
your land, it's your problem whether you lit it or not. This is characterized
by a traditional saying often used by landowners on Cape York; 'He who
owns the fuel owns the i re' (Queensland State Government, 1990; RFS,
2001). The insinuation is that each landholder ought to engage in hazard
reduction burning to ensure that there is insui cient ground-fuel build-up
(dry leaf litter and so on) on their land to allow a i re to encroach.
