Nelson City COuncil Reserves

Fire Season Opening and Closing Methodology

    • During the peak fire season weekly FENZ fire preparedness meetings, FENZ advises on closures of public areas such as reserves and roads.
    • Integrated Consultancy Ltd’s review calculated the inherent risk level of each of our reserves
    • The FENZ advice on closures could take into account the difference in the risk level of the Medium, High and Very High risk reserves, i.e. very high risk reserves advised to close earlier than medium risk reserves
    • This will be discussed with all affected participants at the meeting.
    • NCC takes into account the discussion with neighbouring landowners etc. and advice from FENZ
    • As reserve closures are recommended, NCC puts in place a reserve closure using the Reserves Act (or Local Government Act), stating that this is under advice from FENZ

AREAS

Very High                                          

Maitai Water Reserve                     
Marsden Valley Reserve                 
Grampians                                         

 

High                                                      

Brook Cons Reserve                         
Sir Stanley Whitehead Park           
Atmore Reserve                             
Tantragee Reserve                            
Pipers Reserve                                   
Hanby Park                                         

 

Medium                                       

Roding Reserve                                  
Venner Reserve                                 
Maitai River Espla
Botanical Hill         
Bolwell Reserve                                 
Railway Res Walkway North 

(And others not relevant)

RAWS

 

Hira
Nel/Hira
Nel

 

 

Hira
Hira
Nel
Nel
Nel
Nel
Hira

 

Hira
Nel
Nel
Nel
Nel
Nel

 

In past years, when the BUI alone was used as the trigger point for closure due to fire risk for reserve land, those reserves in the Very High category would have closed at 80, High at 100, and Medium at 120 (so long as the forecasted trend indicated a continued increase in the risk). I.e. if rain was on the horizon, we would delay closure decisions accordingly.

This pre-prescribed formula was a lot more straight forward to a) make decisions, and b) communicate to the public and other stakeholders. However, now with a more widely considered approach also taking into consideration other relevant fire indices the decision making process becomes more complex, but ultimately with more wins for the community.

This year has been quite different in that while the BUI has remained reasonably low, we still have a lot of super dry fuel, across all fuel types, and additionally quite different conditions across the Hira and Nelson catchments, thus adding to the complexity.