The Vegetation Management Program and associated Fuel Reduction burning in Gippsland has built a series of significant partnerships across the region in order to better deliver vital bushfire prevention treatments to the community.
One of these partnerships has recently been formally recognised by Community Correctional Services.
Gippsland VMO John Crane has been working to develop a work partnership agreement with the Department of Justice, Community Correctional Services. This agreement saw the establishment of a bushfire prevention works crew in Gippsland. This crew undertakes critical FRB control line construction works in preparation for CFA FRBs.
“These bushfire prevention crews have undertaken a significant amount of work and as a result our brigades have been provided with high quality FRB control line construction allowing them to significantly increase their capacity to deliver FRBs in targeted areas.”
“This has directly impacted on fire fighter safety at FRBs and increased our capacity to control FRBs in challenging high fuel load areas,” John explained.
More than $40,000 of labour has been delivered by these crews as part of this project at no cost to CFA our brigades or our participating land managers.
The success of this partnership has been formally recognised by Department of Justice, Community Correctional Services.
John was recently invited to attend a statewide awards ceremony recognising all community work partnerships across Victoria.
“It was an honour to be recognised as a finalist among the vast range of community work partnerships within Victoria. It was a greater honour to win,” John said.
The Gippsland 'bushfire prevention works crew partnership' was awarded as the winner in two categories:
• 'Best in Region' as the most outstanding of all partnerships within Gippsland; and
• Overall winner in the 'environment and sustainability' category for the state.
The Corrections Commissioner Jan Shuard and the Minister for Corrections Edward O'Donohue were in attendance to recognise the partnerships and make presentations to John.
John’s aim is to now build on these successes and develop more crews to support brigade fuel reduction burns across Gippsland in an ongoing capacity.
Author: CFA News