 Living in rural Victoria can offer a wonderful lifestyle, the natural beauty of the bush, the habitat it provides to wildlife and the open spaces for grazing, agriculture and hobby farming attracts more people each year. However, this shift to the country creates its own hazards, a much higher bushfire risk and an impact on the long-term health of the natural environment. Planned burning is one of the most effective land management tools. It can reduce bushfire risk and enhance ecological values. Planned burning has sound scientific foundations and practical applications on properties of all sizes and tenures. However, many private land managers in high-risk landscapes are unable to plan or control their own burn safely. They might not have the knowledge or confidence to plan for their bushfire risk and environmental needs. They might not have the resources all the time to ensure the area is properly prepared and the burn completed safely. Or keeping the burn controlled within a single property is difficult. Firescape is supporting communities to work together, across tenures and across properties to better manage a shared landscape for fire. We haven't had the capability until this project came along and that's what I'm so excited about, to work with the individual land owners on their individual properties to come up with a community-based risk plan and risk mitigation plan to lower fuel loads and fire intensity. Burning on public land is pretty well covered by DSE. There are all sorts of targets and so forth about how much vegetation should be burned and can be burned. But in the highly fragmented landscapes within the private land tenure, there's very little planning to date or activity in terms of on-ground burning and so this program is really the first go at getting that sort of thing done on private land. So the key to this program and probably the challenge of it as well is the dual objective to look at reducing fuel levels and protecting ecosystems at the same time and on top of that involving local communities in managing their own bush. This program is great because it gets everyone together in the whole community. We can work with our neighbours, planning out different areas to burn. We've lived here for approximately 15 years, we built the house here, we have cleared around the house and we've also done some clearing and some burning in certain areas of the property but we are going to be burning an area that hasn't been burnt for about 15 years. We've had very interesting information given to us about all sorts of fire behaviour and risk. The reason I would like the burn is several fold, one is to help protect assets that's near the bush which hasn't been burnt for probably at least 60 years and the other is that the bush has degraded that there's not the variety of species of plants there because it's such a country that needs burns at regular intervals and it's well overdue in need for a burn for the ecological benefits and hopefully after the burn we'll be able to assess and see what varieties will spring up. Also looking at the ecology of the area and what species that we can, that are here which some we haven't even, didn't realise were here. Also the regeneration after the fire will be a wonderful thing to look at. I have friends who are some botanists who have already done a, we've put in quadrants and assessed the species that are currently growing in three different areas on the block and they're all very keen to come back post burn and reassess it some weeks and months and years after the burn to see what turns up. Firescape can give you the knowledge and tools to enable you and your community to reduce fuel loads and produce a healthier natural landscape. During two firescape workshops, local land managers and owners are guided by fire and ecology experts to develop a community burn strategy. This is a long-term strategy to gain a more natural mix of vegetation and habitats while achieving effective fuel reduction. These workshops will also help locals to begin their own property fire management plan. During the following order, participants will be invited to observe a plan burn to demonstrate fire behaviour, site preparation and burn management techniques. Optional training in different monitoring methods will help local environment groups or interested landowners track the regeneration process and the ongoing health of their plants and animals. So there is a difference that you can make locally by good housekeeping and good fuel management and if you can spread this to a wider community and we get the whole community on board, we can make a real difference. For more information on Firescape, the CFA plan burning program or how CFA is incorporating fire ecology into its work, please contact us today.