Good Fire Live – Cultural Burning brought to you by ZEB & the Ingrained Foundation
Sunday May 28th was a huge hit! Zero Emissions Byron presented a day long program that explained and demonstrated the Good Fire cultural burning project to a sold out crowd at a property on the Koonyum Range. In attendance were local landholders of open forest country, academics, restoration professionals, council staff, a lone councillor and international conservation NGO representatives.
This prescribed fire education was delivered by Jagun Alliance, lead by Ollie Costello, and Dr Andy Baker. The weather conditions were perfect and the program finale was a demonstration burn.
Participants learned the basics of fire safety and how to conduct cultural burning with confidence. It was a valuable learning experience for all.
Cultural burning in action
ZEB’s Replant Co ordinator, Wren Mclean, lead the event that was funded by the Ingrained Foundation. She summarised the success of the day:
Members of Tweed Byron Local Aboriginal Land Council invited us out with Welcome to Country on behalf of the Durrumbal people who were the clan that utilised the country of the Koonyum Range.
Andy and Ollie bounced off each other giving presentations on the ecological and cultural values of open forest and the dangers to those values from fire exclusion and explained the benefits of fire to all aspects of biodiversity and the mitigation impact on the intensity and destruction of wildfire.
The Byron Shire Council was represented with Councillor Day in attendance along with senior staff member, Biodiversity & Agriculture Team Leader, Liz Caddick. Academics from Melbourne Uni and ANU were present along with representatives from the WWF (who are the worlds largest conservation organisation). The ANU academic is also a Koonyum Range resident and there were other landholders from across the shire. A very successful event.
Landholders literally hold the keys to enabling a return of Good Fire to our landscape. In the Byron Shire our Council is actively supporting Good Fire by inviting landholders to register their interest and acting as a conduit to bring the required stakeholders together.
Here are two key documents produced by the project:
Good Fire Healthy Country 2023
Good Fire Restoration Plan Template 2023
Good Fire Sequesters Carbon
Is a 7 minute video that was produced by Zero Emissions Byron last year with the generous support of a philanthropic donation from a local community member. Watching it will likely change the way you think about fire forever. It provided the grounds for the successful Ingrained Foundation grant application. Prepare to be amazed...
All levels of government must act with urgency to remove all barriers to returning good fire to our open forest ecosystems. If you're not in the Byron Shire but have open forest country in your region talk to your councillors to get this on their radar. All of us must speak to our state and federal members to ensure they understand what Good Fire is and that conflicting and overlapping regulations are the greatest barrier to accelerating the return of Good Fire to Australia's open forests.
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