Draft Parks of Kangaroo Island Fire Management Plan

Have your say on proposed fire management strategies for use on National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) managed-land on Kangaroo Island.

What's being decided?

NPWS is seeking feedback on proposed fire management strategies in its draft Parks of Kangaroo Island Fire Management Plan.

The objectives of this draft plan are to:

• reduce bushfire risk
• maintain and enhance biodiversity
• support bushfire suppression (firefighting).

Fire management strategies help achieve these objectives.

While the proposed fire management strategies focus on public land, they also help reduce bushfire risk to neighbouring properties and to ecosystems that continue beyond park boundaries.

Background

This draft Parks of Kangaroo Island Fire Management Plan is part of fire planning reforms Department for Environment and Water (DEW) put in place after the ‘Black Summer’ bushfires of 2019-20. It includes an improved risk-based approach and modernised regional content with a greater emphasis on spatial information and fire management strategies. It also uses digital storytelling to give a stronger sense of place while being simpler and easier to use than traditional text-based plans. In 2020, the Independent Review into South Australia's 2019-20 Bushfire Season recognised the reforms proposed by DEW as a significant improvement.

NPWS held meetings and workshops with locals including CFS Group Officers and volunteers, KI Landscape Board and its staff, park rangers, KI community, farmers, ecologists and environmental groups, AgKI, and researchers to ensure local and expert knowledge and experience was included. It also worked with key stakeholders including Bureau of Meteorology, CFS, DEW scientists and SA Water to exchange knowledge and use the best available local, state and national data to draft the plan.

Get involved

We want to know - do you think the draft Parks of Kangaroo Island Fire Management Plan will reduce the risk of bushfires impacting on what’s important to you?

We welcome further comments, however please note they will be considered outside of this planning consultation. You can email NPWS Fire Management with further comments or include them in the survey - see below.

First, find out more:

• explore the draft Parks of Kangaroo Island Fire Management Plan
• take a look at our FAQs 
• head to the important links for more detailed information - see the right-hand side menu
• review the Fire Management Planning in SA Parks webpage.

Then, have your say by:

• completing the survey

Please note: your feedback may be made publicly available unless you indicate on the submission that you wish for it to remain confidential. Any responses that are made on a confidential basis may still be subject to access under Freedom of Information laws.

What are the next steps?

All feedback will be considered in finalising the Parks of Kangaroo Island Fire Management Plan. The outcomes of this consultation will be available here and on the Department for Environment and Water website.

Once approved and released, this plan will be reviewed and updated when required to ensure that the strategies are still the best ones to meet the plan’s aims.

If this information is causing distress, or triggering events from the past, please seek help early and contact your local GP or hospital. If you would like immediate help, please phone 000 or contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.