Gippsland’S Native Forest Timber Industry Assists DSE With Fire Fighting EffortsBulldozers and skilled plant operators to assist with fire fighting operations By DSE - 17th January 2003 - Back to News The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) is heavily dependent on state forest logging contractors, their bulldozers and skilled plant operators to assist with fire fighting operations every summer in Gippsland and elsewhere in Victoria.
Bulldozers, in the hands of skilled operators, are very efficient in creating cleared firebreaks in steep and heavily vegetated forest terrain, which is where most of the current fires in the North East are located. These firebreaks can then be used by DSE ground and tanker crews for backburning and mopping-up operations, containing the fires and preventing their further spread.
Grange Jephcott, Manager Gippsland West, Forestry Victoria with the DSE at Traralgon said that a large number of native state forest logging contractors and their bulldozers and crews from East and Central Gippsland and the Yarra Valley, are currently assisting DSE with forest fire fighting in the Ovens and Kiewa valleys and at Corryong in the north east of the State.
" The Department would have major difficulties in suppressing some fires if logging contractors and their machinery were not generally and willingly available for that purpose," Mr Jephcott said.
"Logging contractors and their machines are often held on standby after working hours and at weekends for immediate dispatch to fires, thus providing a valuable first attack resource to restrict forest fires, on most occasions, to small areas."
Native forest logging crews are ideally suited to forest fire fighting as they are accustomed to building tracks and trails in steep and heavily vegetated terrain in their normal work environment. The timber industry generally provides much of the permanent access on which DSE firefighters depend, through the extensive network of logging roads in state forest.
"Logging contractors are skilled in the application of the Code of Forest Practices for Timber production and the Code of Practice for Fire Management on Public Land, both of which provide guidance for minimising the impact of fire suppression operations on soil, water, vegetation and landscape values," Mr Jephcott said.
Source: http://gippsland.com/ Published by: support@gippslander.com
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