00:00On WA's south coast, a burnt landscape returning to life.
00:06Burnt and unburnt and then you come into the gullies and stuff is still flowering.
00:11There's plenty of habitat for the ringtail, possums.
00:15A hand-lit burn was conducted in May.
00:17The cooler weather reduced the damage.
00:19Too often I've seen burns in the national parks where there's been such concern that
00:25they will actually go in the air and bomb out every little patch of green.
00:30It's really refreshing to see a prescribed burn where we've got this result and there's
00:36a lot of vegetation in the valleys.
00:40The Cape Howe National Park spans about 3,500 hectares between Albany and Denmark.
00:45The government has been managing regular burns here over the last decade to control bushfires.
00:49The 350 hectare burn in May has won over critics.
00:52I did praise them on the management plan for this park in the way that they only burn
00:57small strips of the landscape every couple of years.
01:01A mixed reaction from the department responsible.
01:04That was our intention for this burn from the outset in the landscape that we're operating
01:08in, to try and achieve the values and protect the values, both the biodiversity values and
01:13the community values that sit inside there.
01:15It's prompted a call for this approach to be employed across the state.
01:18It made it pretty clear that this is the kind of burning that should be going on.
01:22While the outcomes of the burn here on the state's south coast have been welcomed by critics
01:26of the government's prescribed burning program, the department responsible says the same approach
01:30won't be taken where different methods are required.
01:33If as you move further inland or into the more heavily timbered country, a different style
01:39quality is required and different timing.
01:41A considered approach to a contentious issue.
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