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Gippsland › Latest news › Department of Sustainability and EnvironmentAppointment of Regional Fire Prevention CoordinatorsThe Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) recently appointed five Regional Fire Prevention Coordinators across the state in response to the outcomes of the Victorian Bushfire Inquiry. By Department of Sustainability and Environment - 4th November 2003 - Back to News These new positions will ensure that prescribed burning activities in the regions are thoroughly planned, effectively communicated and carried out to agreed standards in accordance with existing legislation, policies, plans and Codes of Practice.
In Gippsland, Tony Dowler has been appointed as the Regional Fire Prevention Coordinator. Tony's background is as a Forest Officer with the Department for 17 years. He started on the crews at Mirboo North, then moved to Yarram as a Forest Officer for seven years. He then moved to Erica, working principally in wood utilisation and regeneration burning work, before becoming Senior Forest Officer in 2001, responsible for delivering the silviculture program.
From there, Tony went to Traralgon as a Communications Officer for fire, worked as the Gippsland Business Manager for Forestry Victoria, then went back to Erica as Senior Forest Officer.
"The majority of my time has been spent in forestry activities as you can see, so I thought I had something to offer to the fire business through this new role," Tony said.
"The work I’ve been involved in has been strongly related to fire suppression and regeneration burning. A lot of the roles using those skills can be adopted Gippsland wide to ensure that the fire business unit can achieve its goals."
Tony saw this position as an opportunity to broaden his skills across the Department and to work with a wider range of people.
"The job will involve strong liaison with Fire Management Officers across Gippsland, local councils, the community and other agencies and organisations in the region," Tony said.
"I think one of the big messages that I want to drive out of this is speaking to the communities across the region and asking them what they want out of fuel reduction burning and how we can work with them better and understand each other better."
"I think that’s the hub of this position: working closely with the community, listening to them and working with everyone involved towards improved fuel reduction management in the region."
Tony said that the Department produces a Regional Fire Operations Plan, which is open to community comment every year.
"What I want to do is to look at that plan and ask, is it actually achievable, then go to the community and make sure they can have informed input into the Regional Fire Operations Plans affecting their particular area. That way we can come up with a plan that the Department’s happy with and the community is happy with and we can all work towards."
"There’s a lot more involved in fuel reduction burning than people are generally aware of. What I’d really like to be able to do is to educate the public about the amount of work that’s involved in getting to the stage of implementing a burn."
"It’s not just a case of lighting it up and leaving it, there’s a lot of science that goes into determining whether a burn can go ahead, where and how it should be lit and what resources are needed to manage it. The planning is an intense and significant part of fuel reduction burning and I think it would help if the community were more aware of those issues."
A strong message from Gippsland’s new Fire Prevention Coordinator is that no-one should get complacent and think that fuel reduction burning is the answer to wildfire suppression and control.
"It’s only one tool in the fight to manage fire on public land, it won’t stop wildfire occurring," Tony said.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: news@gippsland.com
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