It’s been a busy period for the Hotspots team coming to the end of the financial year. The team has delivered 12 workshops since July 2012 with more scheduled before the end of June this year. The team is now starting to look for new delivery locations. If you have participated in Hotspots in the last two years, you might be interested in our new workshop reporting template now available online. We hope these brief workshop reports provide a valuable snapshot of each regional workshop program and their achievements to date.
One of the highlights for the Hotspots team has been discussions on community monitoring at the workshops. There has been a high level of interest from community groups on how landholders might be able to monitor and observe the types of changes that occur in the environment after fire (e.g. through photo points). The team also noted the valuable discussions taking place with regard to the important interactions that occur between fire, vertebrate pest and environmental weed management for healthy functional landscapes.
This relationship and more will be a core focus in the up-and-coming Nature Conservation Council’s Bushfire Conference titled Fire and healthy landscapes: resilient environment, resilient people. The Conference will be held at the NSW Teachers Federation Conference Centre in Surry Hills on the 4-5 June 2013. The Program offers an exciting range of new scientific research, policy updates and on ground management issues and success stories around the management of fire for healthy landscapes.
John Allen (Hotspots Facilitator for the north of the state) will be presenting at the Conference giving a talk on workshop achievements for the Corindi community (a community just north of Coffs Harbour).
Several of the Hotspots team have been busily involved in operational activities during the 2012/2013 fire season. Phil Paterson and Bruce Hansen, Hotspots facilitators in the south and west of NSW, as well as Jessica Wells our Acting Hotspots Coordinator have been involved with both fire fighting operations and bush fire impact analysis in areas impacted by fire across the state.
Finally, we would like to thank Jimmy Malecki from the north coast Bungawalbin region for his feedback on Hotspots included in this newsletter. As always, the Hotspots team would like to hear from you… please forward your feedback, and be part of our regular “have your say” article.
Kind Regards
The Hotspots Team
