BRIEF

The City of Kalamunda has over 200 local natural areas (LNAs) that include natural vegetation, as well as other land uses including recreational areas.  The LNAs are diverse, ranging in size from small ‘microparks’ to larger areas that are entirely bushland or mixed use, within an urban, semi-urban and agricultural matrix.

APPROACH

Ecoscape developed a strategy that took into account the biodiversity values of each area, including if conservation-listed flora, fauna or ecological communities, fire-sensitive species or vegetation, wetlands or waterways occurred within the LNA; if it was isolated or connected to other bushland areas; risks associated with the LNA including its size and proximity to human infrastructure including houses; weeds; fire management history, and contemporary scientific ecological principles.

The general principles applied include:

• there is a legal requirement to maintain low ground fuel loads, however, in many cases burning is not the only way to manage this
• extend planned burning rotation times if it is safe to do so to allow vegetation and fauna habitat to recover
• if possible, plan fuel reduction burns for the season that least affects biodiversity values (usually autumn although burning in this period is difficult to manage risk against biodiversity benefit)
• plan mosaic burns rather than burn an entire LNA
• intensively manage the interface between native vegetation and human infrastructure by removing shrub layers, control weeds and remove dead biomass, or conduct small-scale burns
• avoid burning in wetlands and waterways
• do not burn large trees (dead or alive) or fallen logs as these are fauna habitat
• large LNAs with contiguous bushland require intensive management due to wildfire risk.