THE Western Australian Farmers Federation (WAFarmers) is pleased that the Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) has listened to its concerns in their review of total fire ban legislation, which will provide greater flexibility to farmers during harvest.
FESA implemented total fire bans in 2009, which prohibited harvesting and the movement of vehicles in paddocks during a total fire ban.
Changes to the legislation will now allow farmers to harvest when there is a total fire ban in place, provided a harvest and vehicle movement ban has not been implemented by their Local Government and farmers have a firefighting vehicle on site, with a minimum of 400 litres of water.
WAFarmers Climate Change and Land Management spokesperson, Dale Park, commented that last year highlighted the need for these changes when, on occasion, total fire bans were implemented on expected, rather than actual conditions.
“Total fire bans were based on forecasted conditions, and so as a result, farmers in some areas were prevented from harvesting on days when conditions varied from those forecasted.”
WAFarmers was quick and proactive in raising the concerns of its members during the 2009/10 harvest, and have worked with FESA since this time to help achieve a more positive outcome for all concerned.
“Local Governments will now have greater flexibility to respond to changes in local conditions, and have the ability to now implement harvest and vehicle movement bans in their area when appropriate.
“These changes will also allow for greater local input into the setting of harvest and vehicle movement bans, which will hopefully provide a more positive outcome for farmers this harvest,” concluded Mr Park.
