Planning for prescribed burning

Prescribed Fire Plan

Each prescribed burn that is scheduled has a Prescribed Fire Plan (PFP) prepared for it. This plan identifies all the preliminary work that need to be undertaken to prepare the burn for ignition. These works include numerous tasks and checks to ensure the burn can be undertaken safely and effectively and achieve the desired outcome. Some of these tasks are checking for rare flora, determining the fauna species that are likely to be present, undertaking fuel sampling to determine fuel loads, maintaining access around the burn boundaries, preparing plans to deal with dieback disease of weed infestations, notifying neighbours and users of the area such as beekeepers and tourism operators and preparing maps and documentation to assist personnel undertaking the burn.

The PFP also identifies the weather conditions and fuel conditions that are required to achieve the stated purpose objectives of the burn. A ‘prescription’ is prepared that sets limits and conditions of when and how the burn is to ignited.

The PFP also identifies any monitoring work that needs to be undertaken after the burn to monitor and record the burn outcomes and assess how well the burn outcomes met the burn objectives.