Roadside burnt vegetation clearing program makes valuable progress

Photo: Roadside burnt vegetation clearing work is well underway on Yarran Road at Boydtown

10 July 2020

Council’s roadside vegetation clean-up program is making real progress across the shire, with many kilometres of burnt vegetation being cleared from the sides of council-managed and Crown roads as part of the overall, ongoing bushfire recovery clean-up.

State government funding for these works has been extended until November, allowing council to complete much needed projects in the most heavily fire-impacted locations.

Crews are operating in the north and south, with the current focus on Boydtown and Quaama.

Council’s Infrastructure & Services Manager - Recovery, Rebuilding & Resilience, Jason Heffernan said that by mid July, work was expected to be completed at both Yarran Road, Boydtown (the road to Ben Boyd Dam) and Orient, Bermaguee and Bent streets in Quaama. Work will continue in the urban Quaama area over the coming months.

Mr Heffernan said the work being done included removal of fire affected trees, chipping and carting of large logs to stockpile for processing at a later stage. Traffic controls were in place and short delays could be expected at work sites while operations were underway.

He said, where appropriate, Council was taking an environmentally-friendly approach to retaining vegetation on site.

“Burnt vegetation is a resource and the best solution, where possible, is to retain it on site rather than transporting it to a waste centre.”

He said solutions included using green waste as sediment control or habitat for native fauna.

“This is important because the scale of this material outweighs what we’re capable of processing at our waste facilities at present. However, it also needs to be balanced against the importance of managing the landscape for any future fire event.”

“It’s great to be making progress in an area for which we have a solution. We’re still working to solve the need to clear burnt vegetation on private property which is outside the scope of the government-funded clean-up program, but our advocacy on that front is continuing.”

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