FireWise gardens look great and improve safety
Is your garden Bushfire Ready? Dunsborough Fire Station, GeoCatch, and The Forever Project are inviting community members to an interactive community workshop to demonstrate the principles of FireWise garden design. During the workshop, participants will see what it takes to design and create a FireWise garden as the finishing touches are put on a brand new FireWise garden installation at the fire station.
Award-winning landscape restoration expert and author Chris Ferreira from The Forever Project will demonstrate that designing a new garden or adapting an existing home landscape to be Bushfire Ready can be relatively straightforward and cost-effective.
“During the workshop, we will be looking at the importance of FireWise plant selection and placement, mulch, and ground cover selection, how to remove “fire ladders”, and the importance of preserving key habitat species,” said Chris.
Harriet Wyatt, GeoCatch Coordinator, is excited to offer homeowners the chance to increase their property’s safety and give participants some practical knowledge on how to create a FireWaise garden.
“FireWise Gardens are not only beautiful, but they help protect lives, property, and bushland by reducing the risk of wildfire and its devasting effect on our communities and the places where we live,” said Harriet.
Climate change projections forecast a quickly drying climate in the South West witnessed by this year’s extremely dry summer. Fire risk is increasing and resilience and adaptation are key management priorities for the outskirts of our towns and rural areas. FireWise landscapes can resist ember attack and fire creep while maintaining a cool, vegetated landscape.
Andy Thompson from DFES emphasised the importance of planning and maintaining a fire protection zone around your house. “We live in a high fire risk area, so anything we can do to assist the community in reducing that risk is a bonus. People will be able to come down to the fire station and see what a well-designed FireWise garden looks like. We will have the fire trucks out at the workshop as well, so bring the whole family down for a look,” said Andy.
For more information on FireWise gardens, click here.
This project is delivered by The Forever Project and supported by GeoCatch, with funding from City of Busselton’s YOU CHOOSE community funding program. This project acknowledges the funding contribution of the Commonwealth Government and support of the WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services.
Photo: DFES Area Officer Andy Thompson, GeoCatch’s Lisa Massey, Firefighters Jon Glasspool, Claire Anderson, Stacey Williams, Allen Bothe, Sada Illmann-Rhelan, John Lawrence.
