By Dongyun Kwon
As the hot and dry season is coming up, Healesville Community Emergency Group (HCEG) is hosting one more event as a part of its Living With Fire series.
It is the fifth public presentation HCEG has organised under the series.
HCEG spokesperson Graeme George said the series had covered different topics regarding the bushfire.
“Our presentations have covered the topics of protecting your house, designing your garden, helping landscape your farm, looking at general risks with climate change,” he said.
“This time, we’re looking at the effect of fires on wildlife, and we’ve invited professor Michael Clarke, who is an expert on this topic.”
Michael Clarke is an emeritus professor of zoology at La Trobe University and has a long-standing interest in the impact of fire on fauna.
In 2010, he appeared as an expert witness in fire ecology at the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission after the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires.
Prof Clarke said he would speak about the historical relationships between fire, people and wildlife and the implications of bushfires which have become a global problem.
“I’m going to tell people about the complexity of managing fire for human beings and for wildlife, and the challenges that presents,” he said.
“This is a terrific effort by the local Healesville community to try and wrestle with some of that complexity.
“I’ve been working in this space for a long time, particularly studying the impact of fire on wildlife and trying to get the balance between protecting human life and conserving the amazing bushland and forest that are around places like Healesville.”
There’ll be an update on the community Bushfire Impact Mitigation Plan for Healesville after Prof Clarke’s presentation.
Mr George said HCEG worked on the Bushfire Impact Mitigation Plan for 18 months, suggesting long-term programs to reduce the risk of bushfires.
“It’s a whole of landscape management plan to encourage landowners, land managers and agencies to undertake landscape practices to reduce the risk of bushfires having an impact on people, property, assets and the local ecology,” he said.
“It’s more than just fuel reduction and there are a lot of other things that we can do, for example, we can put windbreaks to slow down fire.”
The event will be held at The Memo, Healesville from 2pm to 4pm on Saturday 23 November with support from Yarra Ranges Council.
Doors will open from 1.30pm for check-in.
There will be time to mingle and chat over afternoon tea after the presentation.
The event will be free of charge but bookings are essential via the following website, eventbrite.com/e/fire-people-and-wildlife-its-not-rocket-science-its-much-more-complex-tickets-1075285019439?aff=oddtdtcreator
