KI locals pushing for fire breaks, prescribed burns

One of the biggest concerns among locals is whether management of the 15 national and conservation parks and wilderness protection areas on the island will change, to be better prepared for the next bushfire.

Last month, the community feedback period on The Parks of Western and Central Kangaroo Island Draft Management Plan closed.

The new plan centres on six management themes and will replace 'out of date' plans, some of which are nearly 30 years old.

One of the themes is titled 'Managing fire' and includes priorities such as 'mosaic' prescribed burning, modifying fuel loads (lopping, chipping, crushing, piling and slashing vegetation), targeting woody weeds and maintaining fire access tracks.

Of particular local interest has been the proposal to create new permanent fire access tracks within the Ravine des Casoars WPA.

The five tracks would be strategically located 'where possible' to align with control lines created during the 2019-20 bushfire to have the 'least long-term impact on wilderness quality'.

Turkey Lane Merino stud principal John Symons, who nearly lost his life in the fires at Middle River, agreed with retaining the fire tracks created in fighting the blaze.

"So when lightning strikes, the parks are broken up to some extent, with pre-made areas that can be backburned from," he said.

"That would be really valuable to firefighters. The fires won't burn with the same intensity and there won't be complete annihilations of the park and its wildlife."

But Mr Symons worries that conservationists won't allow parts of the WPA to be prescribed burned.

"If that's their plan, then they need to figure out how to better protect the area surrounding those areas," he said.

As a former Country Fire Service volunteer for more than 50 years, Mr Symons also fought the 2007 KI fire, which burnt 95,000 hectares of national park and WPA, and said minimal management changes were made after that event.

"So here we are again, allowing the whole park to burn, losing more infrastructure and wildlife, and farmers losing millions of dollars," he said.

"There has already been all sorts of reports, inquiries and plans made since the fires - yet two years has passed and nothing has happened - when are these decisions going to be made?

"If a farmer created that type of environmental damage, they'd end up in jail, and yet parks management continue to let it happen and say they are doing the best they can for conservation.

"It can't be left as all one unburnt area with no mechanism to stop the fire in that park - that's been going on for years and it's not working."

Agriculture KI - the island's peak farmer representative group - also gave feedback on the plan, as its members had also been critical of the fire management within the parks, forestry and private native vegetation across the western end of the island.

AgKI chairman Jamie Heinrich said parks management had been a "particularly emotional and well discussed topic within our members and the broader KI community since the 2019-20 fires".

"Although agriculture remains the largest industry on KI, the tourism industry is reliant on diverse ecosystems, plentiful wildlife, lush vegetation and unspoilt wilderness to continue to attract visitors," he said.

"It is a widespread view that losing large volumes of parks and indeed the whole of Flinders Chase and the WPA are unacceptable scenarios ... and thus a change of thinking, funding and management practices are required to ensure the same result doesn't happen again."

RELATED READING: Fire review welcomed

RELATED READING: Kiland appoints property manager

Mr Heinrich said AgKI was "really pleased" to see the proposal to convert control lines from the 2019-20 fires into permanent fire access tracks.

"These control lines align with fire frequency within Flinders Chase and associated WPA, which shows the majority of fires within that area start in the north and north eastern areas of the park," he said.

AgKI also supported increased prescribed burning.

While the Department for Environment and Water did not respond to Stock Journal's questions about the roll-out of the plan before deadline, the state government expects to see the submissions report in the coming weeks.

"This will help provide strategic direction for the protection of the natural and wilderness values of the parks and WPAs, as well as create a more modern process," Environment Minister David Spiers said.

He said the government was delivering a "once-in-a-lifetime investment" across KI, with more than $52 million of works to help rejuvenate nature-based tourism either "completed, are well under way or involve significant community consultation".

"The KI tourism industry contributes around $140m annually to the regional economy, and the rejuvenation of the tourism industry and rebuilding of key visitor infrastructure is essential for the economic, social and environmental recovery of the island and its community," he said.