Bushfire prevention - bushfire management zones

Bushfire risk management plans are developed using the Overall Fuel Hazard Guide for South Australia to assess the hazards posed by different fuel types in different vegetation classes.

Bushfire Management Zones are a useful way to devise a strategy that helps protect your property or community, and they define the primary purpose for fire management in a given area of land.

Three Bushfire Management Zones are identified in the Guide, based on:

• the strategic importance of fire protection to the area
• the natural and developed assets and values to be protected or enhanced on the area being considered (e.g. water catchments)
• a standard approach to reduce fuel hazards in native vegetation.

Asset Protection Zone

An Asset Protection Zone aims to provide the highest level of protection to human life, and built, or other, assets.

The goal for an Asset Protection Zone is to reduce the overall fuel hazard to moderate levels. This means that they generally contain highly modified vegetation, such as a cultivated garden or grassland areas that will reduce the radiant heat impact during a bushfire.

Asset Protection Zones provide a defendable space to allow residents and firefighters some degree of safety before, during and after the passage of the fire front.

Management of vegetation within an Asset Protection Zone alone cannot provide complete protection during a bushfire and should be accompanied by other measures to maximise your safety in bushfires.

These can include:

• implementation of Bushfire Buffer Zones to further reduce fuel loads and minimise ember attack
• appropriate building location, design, construction and maintenance
• use of appropriate building materials
• installation and use of sprinklers.

Bushfire Buffer Zone

A Bushfire Buffer Zone is intended to provide strategically located fuel reduced areas that decrease the potential for large bushfires to develop across the landscape.

Bushfire Buffer Zones will typically be located in bushland at the urban fringe or close to rural assets and complement Asset Protection Zones. They provide areas that assist in making bushfire suppression activities more effective and safer for firefighters.

A Bushfire Buffer Zone may also be used in large areas of native vegetation (e.g. farmland, reserves or parklands) that protect community assets across the landscape. These areas of native vegetation will typically be modified yet they will still provide for significant biodiversity value.

Where possible, Bushfire Buffer Zones should include agricultural land that has been managed to reduce fuel loads during the bushfire season.

Conservation Land Management Zone

A Conservation Land Management Zone ensures that management for ecological, conservation and land management purposes is achieved through appropriate, planned management programs.

Conservation Land Management Zones can be large areas of native vegetation (e.g. farmlands, reserves or parklands), or in extensive areas of farmland.

Where appropriate, planned burning activities to be conducted in a Conservation Land Management Zone will be stated in an approved bushfire management plan and may be used to achieve improved ecological processes, cultural values or for landscape protection purposes.

More information

The information in this factsheet is taken from Managing native vegetation - reduce the impact of bushfires for this and other information refer to related links at the bottom  of this page.

Related links

• Read about fire management on environment.sa.gov.au (web page link)
• Contact your local CFS office (web page link)
• Managing native vegetation - reduce the impact of bushfires (pdf)
• Bushfire prevention – creating fuel breaks (fact sheet)
• Bushfire prevention - constructing fire access tracks (fact sheet)
• Bushfire recovery and agriculture (fact sheet)
• Bushfire recovery and biodiversity (fact sheet)