Positives come from Glen Dene fire

Glen Dene Station owner Richard Burdon said while he was still "horrified" about the extent of damage to reserve land caused by a permitted burn-off on his property two months ago, some positives had come out of the fire that would benefit the district in the future.

The fire was lit on September 23 to clear bracken fern on Glen Dene but was fanned by a northwesterly wind and escaped into the Craig Burn gully, a popular tramping and hunting access route into the Matatiaho Conservation Area near Lake Hawea.

Five helicopters and volunteer fire crews from Hawea, Luggate and Wanaka, as well as local Department of Conservation offices, were used to extinguish the blaze, which destroyed about 30ha of regenerating native vegetation.

"It's horrified me what's happened," Mr Burdon told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.

"But it's happened, and we're moving on and we're working with all those affected."

He said following a series of rural fires in Otago, a joint research programme on rural fires was now under way in the region, instigated by the National Rural Fire Authority (NRFU) and involving the district councils, the Otago Regional Council, farmers and the Department of Conservation.

A recent training day had "brought that whole community together to deal with fire and how we can better manage it, or look at other methods [of weed control]", Mr Burdon said.

He encouraged the public to get involved in the process "to see if we can get better suggestions on what they want".

The NRFU was also working with the University of Western Australia on managing fire risks near built-up areas as part of the research.

"[It is] not just about farmers burning off; it's actually dealing with threats to communities as well as biodiversity.

"We're doing as much as we can to try and reduce that risk."

Glen Dene had implemented a spraying programme to remove bracken fern from pastoral areas.

"We're looking at better ways of managing our bracken fern country without necessarily having to burn.

"We are, as farmers, trying to do our job in managing our properties and we are trying to be responsible about how we do it."

Wanaka Doc communications manager Annette Grieve could not confirm when the investigation into the fire would be complete, but said it could take some time.

A report on a fire earlier this year which destroyed the Siberia Hut on the Gillespie Pass Circuit Track in Mt Aspiring National Park was not received until three months later, she said.

The busy time of year and the fact several other fires had occurred in the Upper Clutha around the same two-week period as the Craig Burn fire could be slowing the investigation's progress.

Of those fires, the Craig Burn one was the largest and "most significant, because of the nature of the vegetation that was involved".

Once a report was released, which would detail the firefighting costs, a decision would be made on whether anybody would be prosecuted.

Following its recent meeting in Lake Hawea, Otago Conservation Board members expressed shock at the extent of damage caused by the fire after viewing photos taken by a local resident.

- lucy.ibbotson@odt.co.nz