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Message from the Hotspots Team

Welcome to the June edition of the Hotspots News Online. The team has been busy working on new materials for the Hotspots program, including a new landholder booklet for the Murray region and a DVD highlighting the workshop series in Burra, southern NSW. Extensive literature reviews for the fire and vegetation of the Murrumbidgee and Murray regions will also be available shortly.

More than 300 delegates from various parts of NSW, including a number from the Hotspots network attended the Nature Conservation Council of NSW’s 10th biennial Bushfire Conference on 26 and 27 May, 2015. The conference focused on the use of fire to rehabilitate degraded landscapes, restore ecological integrity, and reinstate resilience into the environment and the community. The Hotspots team was part of a broad network of people who contributed knowledge and experience, and came away with many new ideas.

Hotspots facilitators are preparing for a new round of workshops across the state. To find out more or to register your interest in attending, click on the ‘Hotspots Workshops’ article below.

As always, the Hotspots team would like to hear from you, so please forward your feedback.

Kind regards,

The Hotspots Team

Fire season update

While most of NSW has experienced a fairly quiet fire season, the NSW Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) as of 31 March, had responded to more than 9,200 bush, grass, and scrub fires that burned 168,687 hectares across NSW.  As well as dealing with local fires, the NSW RFS has coordinated response teams to help colleagues battling devastating blazes in Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia. Read more...

Workshop and follow-up activity

Phil Paterson (Hotspots facilitator for southern NSW) completed the workshop series with communities at Murrah-Cuttagee-Bermagui on the south coast, and Mulloon, north-east of Queanbeyan near Bungendore. These workshops delivered with Kevin Taylor (Hotspots ecologist) have been very well received. Read more...

Upcoming Hotspots workshops

Registrations are coming along well for a workshop in the New Italy/Woodburn area, which is being organised by John Allen (Hotspots Facilitator for northern NSW) for July and August. Minyumai Indigenous Protected Area landholders will be participating in the workshop. Read more...

Burra Hotspots Cafe DVD

The Hotspots team is pleased to advise that a new DVD about the “Hotspots CafĂ©” events, which were developed as follow-up to the Burra workshop series held in April and May 2014 is now available to download. Read more...

NCC Bushfire Conference

The topic of Fire as a Restoration Tool was discussed at the Nature Conservation Council’s Bushfire Conference “Fire and Restoration: working with fire for healthy lands” held 26-27 May 2015. Attended by over 300 delegates, the conference heard a variety of presentations on integrated fire and weed management, grassland restoration, Aboriginal cultural burning and ecological burns for endangered flora and fauna. Read more...

New landholder booklet for the Murray

The Hotspots team has just completed the landholder booklet for the Murray region. Developed specifically for landholders in the Murray, this booklet provides an introduction on how fire can be managed for healthy productive landscapes and also presents a framework for incorporating fire into property management planning. Read more...

Great response to SEQFBC Forum ‘Fire, Frogs and Orchids’

Over 100 people converged on North Stradbroke Island on March 26 for the 10th biannual fire forum hosted and coordinated by the South East Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium (SEQFBC). Read more...

NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) climate change workshops

In May 2015, the OEH Impacts and Adaptation team visited regional offices to present the NSW and ACT Regional Climate Modelling (NARCliM) projections and AdaptNSW information portal, and engage with OEH/ NPWS staff, councils, and other NSW Government agencies on how they prefer to access and disseminate climate change information. Read more...

Expressions of interest for weed management work

Hotspots is seeking an experienced contractor for targeted weed management work across four properties in the Bowen Mountain and Kurrajong area to improve the health of vegetation communities as part of a project funded by the Greater Sydney Local Land Services.  Read more...