Cooma residents have heard about a range of bushfire research
projects underway in the region that are likely to influence future
land management practices, in Australia and possibly
internationally.
The NSW Rural Fire Service hosted the session for the Bushfire
Cooperative Research Centre at the Cooma Fire Control Centre on the
evening of 12 April 2007.
Bushfire CRC researchers have several projects across the
Cooma-Monaro region including the High Fire project, which is
looking at the influences on fuels in alpine areas, especially
prescribed fire and grazing.
The High Fire project has several research sites on the Snowy
Plains as well as sites in the Kiewa Valley in Victoria and in the
Cotter Catchment in the ACT. The Snowy Plains site had some
prescribed burning treatment recently as part of the project.
The Federal Member for Eden-Monaro, the Hon Gary Nairn, welcomed
the researchers at the Cooma forum and said much of the Bushfire
CRC work was taking up the recommendations of ‘The Nation
Charred” report he chaired on the 2003 alpine bushfires.
“As part of the inquiry I was keen to see good, hard
practical work done in this area so we could cut out a lot of the
emotional argument and deal with facts and science,” Mr Nairn
said.
“The CRC has been doing some great work so far but it is
going to take a few years to really have the full evidence because
every year is a different weather cycle. You can’t make
definitive decisions based on just one or two
seasons.’’
Mr Nairn said the High Fire project was now starting to get
interesting results. “But we do have to keep it going and I
will be doing all I can to help ensure that that does occur as an
ongoing project.”
The chief executive officer of the Bushfire CRC, Mr Kevin
O’Loughlin, said the High Fire project was a good example of
research work done in partnership with local communities.
“The support we are getting on the Snowy Plains from the
local landowners, the Rural Fire Service and the National Parks and
Wildlife Service is invaluable and is helping to shape this
important work,” he said.
“I think the work being done here is quite unique. There
was research in the past on the effects of grazing and separate
research on prescribed burning but not on the two things combined
and that is what is happening today on the Snowy Plains. We are
also looking at the connections between fire and carbon released
into the atmosphere and the relationship between fire management
and water supplies. This research will not only be important
nationally, but it will generate interest internationally because
other fire prone countries are considering similar
issues.”
