Prescribed Burning
FFEC have completed projects over much of Northern Australia including the Torres Strait islands, Cape York Peninsula, the Kimberley, and throughout various inland and coastal regions extending down to Rockhampton. Our projects vary from small scale operations to implementing complex burn management programs for large scale multi-agency projects comprising of a combination of all of our services.
Due to increased changes in land use such as urbanisation, it is not feasible to reintroduce past Indigenous fire regimes characterised by continual burning on broad scales. But while there are many contemporary constraints to broad-scale prescribed burning, FFEC aims to replicate timely burning based on seasonality, and burning along natural breaks and boundaries.
The methodology we have developed is complex and varied to achieve sustainable ecological outcomes while providing protection of life and property. Burn techniques and strategies used in burn programs are site specific reflecting variances in topographic areas and ecosystems and are based on collaborative knowledge and experience of many fire managers within Australia and studies of past fire behaviour.
Asset Protection
Infrastructure protection, firebreak maintenance, perimeter and boundary burns
Our approach to asset protection is to maximise the productivity of the burn while reducing impacts on the environment. We aim to achieve the outcomes of infrastructure protection by relying on natural firebreaks rather than constructing firebreaks. In instances where safety will be compromised without a constructed firebreak, FFEC can organise the construction of firebreaks for prescribed burning operations.
Ecological Burns
Preservation of biodiversity, climate change adaptation and mitigation, habitat rehabilitation, soil improvement
Both our on-ground and aerial incendiary operations are impeccably timed throughout the fire season to promote healthy and diverse ecosystems by ensuring we efficiently break up the country to create refugia for native species by allowing vegetation communities to continue to flourish at various stages of succession. Flexibility in burning operations is a key aspect of FFEC’s success in ecological burning. In order to maximise productivity within burn programs when there are constraints in burning window availability FFEC adapts specific burning strategies to optimise flexibility in program delivery. We consult with various esteemed specialists in the field of fire ecology and if necessary develop our techniques and strategies according to these recommendations.
Arson Mitigation
Negating the opportunity for roadside arsonists
Often complementary to other components in burn management programs, arson mitigation can be easily incorporated with infrastructure protection and ecological burns. FFEC uses specific information such as fire scar mapping to determine locations of preferential ignition points for habitual arsonists. Roadside corridor burning can break the perpetual cycle of human induced wildfire.
Weed Management & Pasture Improvement
Timing burns for effective results
FFEC has extensive experience is utilising fire for weed control in the presence of pest species such as: Rubber Vine (Cryptostegia grandiflora), Lantana (Lantana camara),Grader grass (Themeda quadrivalvis), Seca stylo (Stylostanthes scabra) and Hamil grass (Panicum maximum).Timing is the critical factor in using fire for weed control. Often the burns need to be carried out under specific climatic conditions and preparedness. FFEC uses various techniques and indicators to time burning for the most efficient control.
Burn Project Coordination & Property Assessments
Ensuring burn programs are interpreted effectively and implemented safely
Interpreting burn management plans and programs and coordinating the implementation of a burn project can be difficult task especially for recently trained land managers who may not have had the opportunity to build up confidence and experience in burning country. FFEC can provide ongoing assistance for aerial incendiary and on-ground prescribed burn operations in the capacity of coordinator offering guidance from the planning to reporting stages of burning.
We specialise in “bridging the gap” between burn program/plan acquisition and burn implementation. Burn programs are often developed by external parties and can be complex and difficult to interpret. We can interpret your developed burn plans and conduct property assessments to provide relevant advice and resources for operational instructions and the most effective functional burn strategies to give integrity to burn programs.
