Burning under eucalypts: Phil Lacy - seminar and field trip

Managing fuel in eucalypt plantations is critical to the success of the plantation. The Bushfire CRC has held a seminar and field trip at Casino in northern New South Wales to show the latest research in this field.

Bushfire CRC PhD student Phil Lacy lead the activity, which attracted 22 participants including from Bushfire CRC member organisations as well as others from the wider plantation industry.

The morning session at the Casino Returned Services Memorial Club featured a presentation and discussion. Phil's research has produced a tool for conducting prescribed burning operations within young eucalypt plantations. This tool is in the form of a small pocket guide that provides a process for determining suitable fuel and weather conditions for burning, how best to burn, and how to assess the effect of burning on plantation trees.

In the afternoon the group visited a nearby Forests NSW plantation, where much of Phil's research was conducted. Forests NSW lead a demonstration burn, which enabled the field trip participants to immediately put the new guide into practice and assess fire damage to the young trees.

This day provided useful information about fuels management and fire damage assessment for those managing small or large eucalypt plantations.

The seminar and field trip were part of the Research Adoption process of the Bushfire CRC. More information on this and other events can be found here.