October 28, 2012
A sustainable forestry plantation near Toowoomba, designed to become a future source of power poles for Ergon Energy, narrowly escaped disaster when bushfires ripped through the region this week.
Sustainable Pole Farm Manager David Wood said the quick response to the fire when it threatened the 1300ha “Eagle Rock” forest, near Ravensbourne, prevented future power poles worth millions of dollars from going up in smoke.
Mr Wood said the risk was quickly recognised when a fire was detected within a kilometre of the property on Sunday morning and his team began back-burning that afternoon.
“Their gallant efforts to grade containment lines and carry out back-burns long into the night, then guard the property through the week almost certainly prevented a catastrophic loss of trees,” he said.
“In total, the operation included 12.4km of back-burning in extremely challenging conditions, 15.8km of graded fire breaks and 1.6km of dozed breaks.
“Unfortunately, we could not completely contain the fire and lost about 88ha on the first night, but I am confident the trees in this section will bounce back.”
Mr Wood doubted the property could have been saved without the preventative hazard reduction program over the past three years and a good network of fire trails.
