The embers had barely cooled on the most recent, the Ohau fire, before the debate turned to causes and Feds and Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage crossed swords on what degree fire fuel loads on Department of Conservation (DOC) land were a factor.
“We definitely need some answers sooner rather than later,” Feds high country chair Rob Stokes said.
At a rural stakeholders meeting, including farming and DOC representatives, Stokes said it was a matter of absolute urgency to start planning now before the next fire.
“And it is the next one (fire), not if there is another one,” he said.
“We have been very lucky until now that no human lives have been lost, but that will be just a matter of time if this fire loading on ungrazed areas is not addressed.”
Farmers reiterated their stance on fire loading and grazing, the key focus for the meeting called to address the concerns.
“We’re going forward into summer, Fire and Emergency NZ have been supportive here in North Canterbury and there’s no doubt we all want to work together on this,” Stokes said.
“We need to look at grazing to get the tag off some of these high-risk areas.
“Grazing around some of these alpine villages will be hard for farmers to do, but for the safety of the public and the environment, farmers will do it.”
Farmers acknowledge that there are some areas of the DOC estate where it’s totally inappropriate to have livestock but in less sensitive areas, low numbers of sheep and cattle can keep combustible grass, scrub and immature wilding pine levels down.
“We just need to get collaborative planning in place to make it happen,” he said.
Feds representative on the Forest and Rural Fire Stakeholders Forum Colin Hurst says the meeting was constructive in that farmers, DOC and Land Information NZ (LINZ) agreed to further engage.
“There’s consensus to try and work together and the next step now is to get all stakeholders on board, including regional and local councils,” he said.
“Farmers have been highlighting the risk of this increase in fuel loading since land was retired from grazing.
“It’s been ongoing for years and not going to improve unless we all work together to resolve the problem.”
“The Ohau wildfire claimed 40 homes, several buildings and a good number of livestock, it could easily have claimed human lives too.
“We are getting to the start of the fire season, so there’s real immediate need to identify the high-risk areas and just get on with it.
“We don’t want to see the issue kicked to touch until property and lives are again put at risk.”
Hurst says the recent Ohau and the Pukaki Downs fire in August are by no means the first instances DOC land has been front and centre in wildfires.
The Old Dunstan Road wildfire near Middlemarch in November last year highlighted the same issues with the majority of the 5000 hectares burnt within DOC conservation park.
“One could argue that given the time since these lands were retired from grazing through the land tenure review, DOC has allowed the flammable fuels to build up to dangerous levels,” he said.
“Wilding pines have also been allowed to build up over the past 15 to 20 years.”
Forest and Rural Fire Stakeholders’ Forum co-chair and former national rural fire officer Murray Dudfield says it is an issue of land management.
“With the land cover and fuel loads which now exist on such lands, it’s not a matter of if, but when we will have uncontrolled wildfires on these lands,” he said.
“Action is required to reduce fuel loads by either grazing or fuel reduction burning when conditions are suitable.
Hurst says they just want to get some rational and considered discussions going and is hopeful this preliminary meeting is the beginning of working together to get safe and sensible solutions.
