The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has delayed hazard reduction burns planned for the Gunnedah and Kelvin areas.
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A NPWS spokesperson said more than 500 hectares of reduction burns planned for the Wondoba State Conservation Area south-west of Gunnedah, and the Boonalla Aboriginal area north of Gunnedah and north-west of Kelvin had been postponed for at least a fortnight because the conditions weren't right.
Meanwhile, NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) Liverpool Range District has reduction burns planned for Porcupine Reserve, Mullaley, Liverpool Plains and Colly Blue.
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An RFS spokesperson said the RFS would work with NSW Crown Lands and Gunnedah Shire Council to conduct a series of hazard reductions in the porcupine reserve on Apex Road, Gunnedah.
"The plan will cover a span of three years, [with] each consecutive year reducing the surface fuel loading by using low intensity fire. This reduces the risk of wild fire being supported by ground fuels, allowing it to crown into the trees and generally becoming harder to control," they said.
"This particular hazard reduction program will assist to safeguard the residents and township of Gunnedah and critical infrastructure in the same location from the threat of wild fire. The area has been strategically segregated to provide the maximum benefit over the three-year program."
This reduces the risk of wild fire being supported by ground fuels, allowing it to crown into the trees and generally becoming harder to control.
- NSW RFS
In Mullaley, burns are planned for the eastern side of the Black Stump Way to "reduce the effects of wild fire spreading through what is primarily grassland into grazing paddocks and potentially threatening the Mullaley residents from the south".
"This hazard reduction has been postponed a number of times to ensure that viable feed areas during the drought weren't disrupted," the spokesperson said.
On the Liverpool Plains, the RFS said three separate hazard reductions were planned for Premer, with the view of expanding into a three-year program to "provide the maximum long-term protection".
In the Colly Blue area, two large sections of land have been identified for hazard reduction over a three-year period because of lightning strike activity and lack of access to areas where lightning has caused fires in the past.
"By strategically burning out the ground fuels in sections among these large areas, we can create a break among the landscape when wildfire happens to take a run. This reduces the intensity and therefore the impact the wildfire has on anything in its path," the spokesperson said.
The RFS said more hazard reductions are planned for the Liverpool Plains and Upper Hunter shires and it can assist landholders with "large or complicated hazard reductions if requested".
To keep up-to-date with planned hazard reductions, visit http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/fire-information/hazard-reductions