The purpose of the Firebreak Location, Construction and Maintenance Guidelines is to provide fi re and land management practitioners with a tool to assist with the location, construction and maintenance of fi rebreaks on any natural environment (e.g. pastoral station, farm or reserve). The Guidelines are designed to provide an estimation of the situation with guidance to the soil types, slope, estimations of water concentrations and volumes, and the impact of these factors on soil erosion associated with fi rebreak location, construction and maintenance. Prior to undertaking any fi rebreak construction or maintenance work it is essential that the potential social, financial and, very importantly, the environmental costs and impacts are identified and considered against the potential fi re management benefi ts gained by clearing vegetation from the land. The Guidelines have been developed by working with very experienced land and fi re managers within the pastoral industry, local government and within the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) and reference publications on fi rebreaks, soil management and erosion. FESA has designed these Guidelines as a reference tool to assist pastoralists, land and fi re managers in determining solutions for fi rebreak location, construction and maintenance when a management issue, such as erosion, is likely to eventuate. FESA is aware that many pastoralists, farmers and land managers have very extensive networks of fi rebreaks on land that suffer no erosion and therefore do not require any additional erosion mitigation works. These Guidelines will assist in meeting the fi rebreak requirements as prescribed in the Bush Fires Act 1954 and the local laws developed by local governments whilst limiting the potential for environmental harm.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 09:52:40 +0000