Tasmanian World Heritage areas deserve better firefighting plan, conservationists

Updated

Firefighting is not a high enough priority in a draft management plan for Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area, conservationists say.

The full impact of one of Tasmania's worst bushfire seasons is becoming clearer, as more of the area is reopened to the public.

More than 100,000 hectares has been burnt across the state since the middle of January.

About one fifth of that is in the Wilderness World Heritage Area, which is home to a range of globally significant vegetation including Pencil and King Billy pines and cushion plants.

While the Tasmania Fire Service said it did everything it could to protect the rare vegetation, conservationists argue firefighters were told to protect property, ahead of natural assets.

Save the Tarkine campaign director Scott Jordan said that was not a good way of thinking.

"Property can be insured, property can be rebuilt, but millions of years of rainforest evolution doesn't get rebuilt," he said.

"We would like to see an equivalent effort put onto defending those assets."

Vica Bayley from the Wilderness Society believed it was a sign the State Government's draft management plan for the area was too weak.

"The current draft [management] plan is inadequate when it comes to fires," he said.

"The 1999 plan for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area was very good in that it articulated a prioritisation process for land managers.

"It said that you needed to prioritise life, then fire sensitive natural values and then infrastructure.

"This has been totally jettisoned from the proposed draft plan.

Shane Batt from the Tasmanian Fire Service (TFS) said the organisation was pleased with its priorities through the fires.

"We've worked on a priority list and a lot of the things we took into consideration was infrastructure," he said.

"Life and property is our number one priority, so we'll deal with that first.

"The World Heritage Area was high priority; we were well aware of that, but where it was burning in that World Heritage Area it was virtually impossible for us to get crews into."

Premier Will Hodgman defended the draft management plan.

"Our fire response does include understanding the risks to people, to property, to infrastructure as well as our natural assets," he said.

"One thing we are determined to do after what have been extraordinary bushfires across the state is learn from the experience.

"It's not true for anyone to suggest that we weren't well prepared or we didn't put adequate resources into protecting the world heritage area."

Fire damage 'beyond comprehension'

Mr Jordan had his first look at some of the fire-affected areas in the Tarkine, near Temma.

"Early indications are that there's been quite a bit of damage," he said.

"We're talking about rainforest that has evolved over millions of years. These areas are significant globally and they don't just appear.

"You would have to assume that there's been not only devils, but quolls and pademelons, wallabies, wombats will have all been affected by this.

"To see it lost in such a large scale in a fire like this is beyond comprehension."

He believed it would take hundreds, if not thousands of years for the area to regenerate, if it did at all.

"Where the fire has impacted on rainforest, it can be up to a thousand years until the areas are restored," he said.

"They'll regenerate largely as a eucalypt forest, and it could be a thousand years until they return back into that rainforest.

"I think it's very likely that some ecosystems won't ever recover back to rainforest."

More resourcing needed

Scott Jordan hoped Tasmania would learn from the bushfire emergency and look to secure better resources for the future.

"These events are going to become greater risk over time, and I guess we would urge government to start looking at how we have to adapt to, I guess, what is the new norm," he said.

"We've clearly seen the effectiveness in these fires of those large water bombing aircraft and particularly in those remote areas.

"I think there's a need for us to take a serious look at resourcing more of those types of capacities.

"Let's give our firies the resources they need, the processes and the systems they need to be able to defend incredible natural values"

Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife Service is sending specialist teams into bushfire affected areas to document the damage.

It will use the assessments to guide rehabilitation programs in the area.

The TFS is also working to reopen roads in the area and to reinstate vegetation that was bulldozed during the fires.

It is expected to be some time before the full extent of the damage is known.

Topics: conservation, environment, states-and-territories, tas

First posted