2021-06-08 Planning & Environment Committee Meeting Agenda

PLANNING & ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                                        8 JUNE 2021


Public consultation was undertaken through Your Say Noosa and promoted through Noosa Council’s
Facebook page. Government and non-government organisations (see consultation section of this
report) with an interest in bushland reserve management and fire management were provided with
a link to view the Draft in case they wanted to make comment.
The Bushland Reserve Strategic Fire Management Plan was placed on Your Say Noosa with the
Bushland Reserve Strategic Management Plan. Consultation was open on 22 February 2021 and
closed on 22 March 2021.
Across both plans there were 476 website visits with 322 ‘aware’ participants (visited more than one
page) and a further 142 ‘visitors’ (visited only one page). There were 70 downloads specifically of
the Draft Noosa Bushland Reserve Strategic Fire Management Plan.
Overall 14 submissions were received from the public on the Plans. Some of the submissions
referred to both the Bushland Reserve Strategic Management Plan and the Bushland Reserve
Strategic Fire Management Plan. Most comments relate to the need to improve resourcing and
management of the bushland reserve network. 8 of the submissions included comments directly
related to fire management matters:
    How did the risk assessment consider biodiversity values
    Clarify planned burn objectives
    Provide formal processes for informing wildlife response agencies
    Provide more information on multi-agency fire management plans
    Address how the Plan overcomes the challenges of limited Council resources
    Include procedures for protecting threatened species and cultural heritage sites from fire
    What is the relationship between the Fire Management Plan and the Coastal Management
     Plan
    Submitter supports the development of a FMP for the coastal reserves
    Council should seek more State bushfire funding
    Climate change needs to be considered with threats to biodiversity
    The submitter has offered assistance with detecting and reporting of bushfires
    Concerns over fire fuel loads in certain Bushland Reserves
Attachment 2 provides responses for each of the submission topics. In consideration of the
submissions, 8 amendments were made to the Draft Plan. Change for the draft that went out to
public consultation are highlighted in yellow in Attachment 1, the Noosa Bushland Reserve Strategic
Fire Management Plan 2021.
5.   Peer review
During the public consultation phase Safe Assure was also engaged to complete a peer review of
the Strategic Fire Management Plan. Safe Assure made 10 recommendations:
     Clarify why the risk rating is different between staff, contractors, volunteers and visitors
     Consider climate change information as a first step in the risk assessment methodology
     Consider vegetation types that may be a hazard post-fire e.g. falling Eucalypts
     Develop community campaigns to reduce dumping of green waste into bushland reserves
      which can increase fuel loads
     Restrict vehicle access to fire trails for emergency services use only
     Integrate the principles of the National Guidelines for Prescribe Burning Operations into the
      risk assessment process
     Include systems and processes for Council to have bushfire response capabilities
     Investigate State and Federal funding opportunities to improve the resilience of building stock
      located next to bushland reserves


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