Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
As well as its role in coordinating the Permit to Light Fire system, the
Rural Fire Service also works with Cape York landholders in implement-
ing a series of 'controlled' burns at the beginning of each dry season. This
is done via a series of workshops held across Cape York prior to each dry
season where interested landholders can attend and request that the Rural
Fire Service carry out burning on their land. The Rural Fire Service then
l ies a light aircraft along the boundaries of participating properties and
drops incendiary bombs that are intended to burn a series of i rebreaks
between each property. The rationale for this practice is one of hazard
reduction. As outlined above, the rationale is that by burning the available
ground fuel on property perimeters, the spread of wildi res later in the dry
season might be avoided. Some stakeholders, however, are critical of this
practice as being too indiscriminate and not accounting for environmental
considerations in terms of whether the various af ected ecosystems are
able to cope with regular, or indeed, any i re. Indeed, as Russell-Smith
et al. (2003) highlight, as well as there being no consensus over what i re-
oriented landscape management should aim for, neither is it clear whether
humans have the tools or resources to implement particular regimes over
a large spatial scale.
When applying for a Permit to Light Fire, a landholder is required to
disclose to the local Fire Warden any arrangement they have with other
government agencies that obliges them to protect some aspect of their
property from i re for environmental reasons or otherwise. Such arrange-
ments are rare but do include agreements between landholders and the
Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy to
undertake burning to kill back weeds such as rubber-vine (DNR, 2001),
or, in a few examples, to maintain the habitat of the endangered golden
shouldered parrot,
Psephotus chrysopterygius
, which relies on late dry-
season i res to create necessary nesting conditions (Crowley et al., 2003).
The only instance where such an agreement might limit burning is where a
public road runs through a property. There is only one main, unsurfaced
dirt road in Cape York so this is rarely an issue. Once a landholder has
informed their Fire Warden of any such agreement, it is then up to the
Warden to consider this when detailing the conditions of the Permit to
Light Fire. Wardens are all local stakeholders themselves chosen by the
Rural Fire Service on the basis of assumed local knowledge of their area
of responsibility (areas of responsibility range from just the Warden's own
land to including theirs and a few of their neighbours' properties). The
Rural Fire Service states that 'the local volunteer Fire Warden should not
be responsible for policing environmental issues' (RFS, 2001, 1-1) on the
basis of them not possessing sui cient knowledge to do so.
In addition to the Rural Fire Service, Queensland's Environmental
