Onsite Meeting with Council at the Rogers Reserve to discuss planned burn

Following on from the newspaper articles and facebook controversy (see previous posts). I received a call from the TRC Environment Department Staff, to discuss the plans for the reserve burn and also to let us know about what had been happening behind the scenes with the complaints from the residents on O'Brien Road.  Council were wanting to work with the Friends of Rogers Reserve Group for a positive outcome that we could all be happy with and that will help the reserve with regeneration of some native tree species and also reduce fuel load risks in key areas.

Four of the members of the Friends of Rogers Reserve, attended a meeting on site with TRC council staff on Friday 29th May.  Some of the members who attended from our group are very experienced with both bushland management and fire management so this was very helpful.  We were able to show council the areas of significance that we wanted avoided which included rare orchids, the large fallen tree at the back of the reserve, trees with significant hollows and areas of significant ground wildlife habitat.  The burn will be a cool mosaic burn and we are happy with the plan made with council for the areas that will be burnt. We have also been invited to be on site when the burn happens, which will be towards the end of June, all being well weather wise. 

Further updates to come.  We would like to thank Toowoomba Regional Council for the time taken to discuss this with us in great length and offer their expertise and them to listen to ours.

J, Gray

Friends of Rogers Reserve.