Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Regional New South Wales Tara Moriarty has met with Forestry Corporation fire specialists to discuss bushfire preparations on the Mid North Coast.
Minister Moriarty attended Forestry Corporation’s Wauchope depot to speak with fire crews, who are geared up and ready to put their training into action protecting forests and communities during the NSW bushfire season.
Forestry Corporation is one of the state’s four fire authorities joining the NSW Rural Fire Service, Fire and Rescue NSW and ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Parks and Wildlife.
The organisation oversees land management, bushfire preparation and response across more than 2-million hectares of state forests.
Forestry Corporation has more than 500 trained firefighters rostered on to respond to state forest fires across NSW.
Firefighters are trained in national firefighting competencies and its highly experienced managers undertake Incident Management Team roles on major firegrounds.
Forestry Corporation has a statewide fleet of more than 450 fire appliances, 35 pieces of heavy plant, four contracted aircraft and over 130 drones and trained pilots.
Heavy plant machinery, which the broader forestry industry uses to harvest sustainable timber is also available to fight fires.
This machinery including bulldozers, excavators and specialist harvesting machines are used to create control lines for firefighting, set up back burns and remove dangerous trees for firefighting safety.
In 2023/24 Forestry Corporation firefighters and fire managers were engaged in a total of 184 fires, this impacted 98,250 hectares of land.
During the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires, this heavy plant machinery played an instrumental role in stopping the spread of fast burning bushfires saving life, property and assets across NSW.
Outside of the bushfire season, Forestry Corporation also conducts forest hazard reduction burns and undertakes cultural burns in partnership with local Aboriginal communities.
Forestry Corporation also sends its expert fire specialists abroad in the winter months to assist international firefighting agencies in the Northern hemisphere.
Six staff members deployed to the United States and Canada this year and last year Port Macquarie local Matt Model was one of Forestry’s fire specialists, who deployed to Canada bringing back firefighting skills and expertise to the region.
Minister for Regional New South Wales Tara Moriarty:
“The NSW Forestry Corporation has managed fire in state forests for more than 100 years.
“Forestry Corporation’s trained firefighters work in State forests every day of the year, protecting lives, the environment, forestry resources and local communities.
“They have decades of experience in managing forest fires, working with the RFS, managing heavy equipment across major firegrounds and maintaining thousands of kilometres of fire trails,
“When bushfires are reported in our NSW state forests, our forest firefighters rapidly respond using their large fleet of appliances and bringing in heavy plant machinery from the broader forest and timber industry.”
Forestry Corporation Senior Manager Fire and Natural Hazards Rebel Talbert:
“As one of the four statutory firefighting authorities in NSW, Forestry Corporation works collaboratively with the other agencies to protect communities, the environment and the State’s essential timber assets from the risk of fire.
“We are well prepared heading into the fire season with a workforce of skilled firefighters, a fleet of equipment, drones and heavy plant ready to deploy and networks of fire trails and fire towers maintained to aid rapid detection and early suppression of fires.
Forestry Corporation Fire and Operations Team Leader, Wauchope, Matt Model:
“In managing more than 200,000 hectares of state forests here on the Mid North Coast, we keep the Mid Coast Bush Fire Management Committee briefed on fuel loads and fire conditions in state forests.
“Since the Black Summer Bushfires here on the Mid North Coast firefighting technology has been rapidly expanded across NSW to include drones and satellite technology, which this summer will help our crews with early detection, mapping, response and containment of forest fires.”
