coastal custodians - Department of Environment and Climate Change

Regional Managers
Report
This is the first Coastal Custodians for 2007. It
should be a big year for us all.
There’s plenty to catch up on. Summer was
good – really good rain at the end and not too
many fires, those that we did have were certainly
challenging. We had a few lightning strikes in
really inaccessible country, which we had to
attack using remote fire fighting techniques.
The Brogo fires were the most difficult;
lightning strikes in January started a number of
fires in really rough country upstream of the
Brogo Dam. They were eventually put out after
burning about 450ha over a couple of weeks.
Trisha Ellis and others were there and some of
her photos are in this edition.
Refuelling the Helicopters at Brogo Helipad
We’ve now started our autumn hazard reduction
program. For local readers, some of the smoke
(but by no means all) of the smoke you are
seeing is coming from fires in the park.
There’s one burn planned for Biamanga this
autumn, but it’s a bit wet at the moment and we
might not get it in. If we don’t the Board will
need to decide whether it should go ahead next
year.
We are also planning to do a cultural burn at
Stanton Rocks in South East Forests National
Park. On the advice of elders, this burn has
been planned to look after country.
Helicopter with bucket
Speaking of Trisha, she’s off to Sydney on
Monday to be awarded a Bachelor of
Community Management from Macquarie
University. She will also be presented with an
award for academic achievement.
Congratulations Trisha, this is huge effort,
especially given your work and community
commitments. I don’t know how you have the
time to do it all.
After the election, National Parks is now part of
a bigger department called the Department of
Environment and Climate Change. Its only just
happening and I’ll be able to say some more in
the next edition.
Our new Minister is Phil Koperberg who up to
recently was head of the Rural Fire Service.
He’s taken over Bob Debus’s seat of Blue
Mountains.
The appointment of the Boards of Management
for Gulaga and Biamanga was held up slightly
because of the election. Now that it’s over it will
be Minister Koperberg rather than Minister
Debus who will be responsible for appointing the
Boards. I know its been a while it but it should
be finalised soon.
Tim Shepherd
Regional Manager
Coastal Custodians 6