On Wednesday 17 February 2010, I travelled with TIDE Volunteer Alastair Daly to Payne’s Creek National Park (PCNP) to learn more about fire management at the park.  I was also interested in how the TIDE Rangers and staff dealt with training and preparation to avoid and minimize wildfire, and the importance and value of prescribed (controlled) burning.  With a video camera and a stills camera, we set off with the following questions in mind:

I shot a good amount of footage featuring TIDE's Terrestrial Manager, Mario Muschamp, and TIDE rangers setting and dousing (only with a little running away from) fires.

 

We also took time to shoot Alastair’s hour long interview with Mario where we had the opportunity to get into the nitty gritty side of the area's fire management plan.

 

The weather did not hold for the next morning, so only a brief indoor interview with Mario was possible. All prescribed burning must stop when it rains, the duration and amount of rain determine how long the guys must wait until they can resume burning.  A couple hours of light drizzle ended hopes to burn more on this trip. The rain also made it more difficult to move the video camera around to capture the real beauty of this area.

 

I  look forward to returning to PCNP (on a brighter day) and capturing shots of the various eco-systems and the elusive yellow-headed parrot.

 

Stay tuned for a mini-documentary featuring Mario introducing the what’s and the wherefore’s of black lining within PCNP (It will take a few days to trim down the 3 hours of film we shot!).