Dumbalk North farmer and long-term CFA member Adrian Harris is furious at the bureaucratic approach taken in relation to burn off restrictions, with a lack of flexibility to bring forward the end date following recent rain, with May 1 still the end of the Fire Danger Period in South Gippsland Shire.
“It’s a complete disrespect for the farming community of the area,” he said, stressing there have been six inches of rain in the South Gippsland region recently.
“It’s green and wet everywhere,” Adrian declared.
He runs a mixed farm, combining beef and sheep, and wants to burn fallen vegetation from February’s destructive storm to enable him to sow paddocks.
Adrian noted that conditions are now ideal for burning off but it will soon be too wet and cold, and days too short to get fires going successfully.
“You need two or three reasonable days to get a burn,” he said.
Adrian explained Autumn is the time for farmers to sow paddocks so they can get grass growth, not winter.
While frustrated with his own situation, he noted local dairy farmers he knows are more significantly impacted by the ongoing burn off restrictions, with an urgent need to clear fallen cypress trees left over from the February storm.
He explained that those dairy farmers can’t put cattle in paddocks until the cypress trees in them are burnt because pregnant cows eating from cypress trees are subject to aborting their calves.
While acknowledging the option exists to apply for a permit to burn off before restrictions end, Adrian said the conditions imposed are unreasonable.
He gave an example of someone he knows who applied for a permit to burn off in the middle of a completely green paddock.
“They were told they had to have a person on site the whole time and water tanks there in case the fire got away,” Adrian said, arguing there was no prospect of it doing so in the circumstances.
Adrian, who belongs to the Milford CFA and was an office bearer there for 35 years, said he keeps getting phone calls from farmers wanting to know why burn off restrictions haven’t been lifted, a question he clearly wants answered too.
“We don’t get bad fires in the South Gippsland area,” he said, adding that the farmers act responsibly and deserve to be treated with respect.
Adrian pointed out that the Fire Danger Period in Wellington Shire, originally also scheduled to end on May 1, is finishing early, with that to occur at 1am on April 22.
The CFA has been contacted for comment and will issue a media release by Monday April 22.
