A proactive bushfire prevention partnership developed between CFA and Gippsland Community Correctional Services - Community Work Program continues to deliver results across the community.
The partnership was established with the objectives of providing critical support to brigades and local land managers preparing sites for planned burning in and around the Latrobe Valley.
Organisations including Vicroads, Latrobe City, local committees of management and land owners have all benefited from the bushfire prevention works undertaken by the Gippsland Community Work program.
Due to the success of the partnership across the Latrobe Valley, the program has now been expanded to the east of the Region servicing Bairnsdale and neighbouring areas.
The bushfire prevention work facilitated by the Gippsland Community Work Program has also expanded their scope of works to include other vegetation management works and manual bushfire fuel removal, protecting at risk communities and locations where planed burns may not be achievable.
CFA Vegetation Management Officer John Crane explained:
“CFA brigades undertake critical fuel reduction burn operations to better protect our communities from Bushfire. The valuable work of the partnership creates planned burn control lines by manually removing and managing vegetation which helps to increase bushfire prevention in targeted locations across the region”
“The Community Work program has delivered in excess of $250,000 of labour in kind, undertaking this work and assisting our brigades with excellent bushfire prevention outcomes across our community” Mr Crane concluded.
The Gippsland Community Work program will continue their work as the CFA prepares for its Autumn planned burning operations.
For information and advice about planned burning and bushfire mitigation in your area please contact your local Vegetation Management Officer.
For a previous story about this partnership click here. This partnership won a Fire Awareness Award which you can read about here.