5/16/14 Nelson - Richmond

Morning found us on the bus again for a 292 kilometer bus ride north to Nelson at the very northern end of the south island. We drove on a cold morning up through the New Zealand Alps, through Lewis Pass, with beautiful views of the mountain peaks, rolling fog and some frosty ground, stopping at a high point called Hope Pass.  Down and out of the mountains, we stopped for lunch at Richmond and listened to Ian Reade with the Rural Fire Authority for the Waimea District who told us about the area

Nelson and the Tasman area has a population of 100,000 people, half of which live in town and half in surrounding areas.  The main economic activities are: Exotic Forestry (non indigenous, mostly Radiata) and wood processing (medium density fiberboard, laminated veneer). The forests are similar to South America and were all privatized in 1990 and currently, 30% - 40% of wood goes off shore and the rest is

Ian Reade presents in Richmond

domestically used.  Other industries are horticulture (Apples, kiwi, grapes, hops) which uses fire quite a bit, tourism (3 national Parks) and seafood (largest fishing port in Australasia, hoki, Orange Roughy, flounder, snapper and farmed salmon, mussels & scallops).  Summer temps reach 70 to 85 degrees with RH's as low as 20% and winter temps of 50 to 65 degrees.  The northern most point of the area gets 240 inches of rain a year while just 45 miles southeast, only 38 inches per year.

The Waimea RF District is 1,018,437 hectares covering Nelson City and Tasman District. 5500 ha is Urban Fire Districts, 120,000 ha is Commercial forest, 632,000 ha is Dept. of Conservation reserves of indigenous forest and 5000 ha is agricultural. They have a Rural Fire Committee which oversees the Rural Fire Network which provides fire management through a Principal Rural Fire Officer (PRFO).  Stakeholders own all the equipment and contractors just do the firefighting & maintain the equipment.

The areas around Nelson and Richmond

The area is managed in zones primarily by the kind of land: conservation, exotic forestry etc.  There are only three seasons: open to burn (with conditions), restricted (permit required & conditions) and prohibited (no fires but some exceptions).  Most of the Waimea is restricted all year except for a few areas where its prohibited.

The risk profile is similar to many tourism based places in the US:  WUI areas, steep terrain with heavy fuel load, a lot of tourists, commercial forests, and 67+ days of high fire danger.  Fire was used for some land management, some in land clearing, but not much any more.  It is used for disease management especially in agriculture, but most planned or prescribed burning is done by by private landowners in yards and gardens.


The PRFO is in charge of 7 of the rural fire brigades.  The volunteers do deal with structure fires, vehicle accidents and other things because they are often on scene first, but there are urban firefighters trained for those things.  They use fire lookouts as fire weather index goes up in the summer as a lookout and as an initial coordinator between the 111 call (their 911) and those first on scene.  The lookout also watches for smoke when there are restrictions and the public knows he is there and watching which serves as a deterrent. 


They do run a preparedness program through the forestry company which goes out at 10 am to let forest production operators know the fire danger rating and the crews must stick to the rules associated with that danger class.  As it gets worse, they are required to repeat back on the radio to ensure they understand. Publicity is done all summer aimed at visitors and patrols are increased. 

The ocean at Nelson in NZ

FireSmart is also in place, their version of FireWise.  It's aimed at rural communities and the WUI and just informs the public about the risk to life and property and stresses that they should not rely on the brigades coming to save them.  Mostly focused on fuel reduction by going into communities to show them the tools they can use to reduce their risk.  

It's interesting that at least on the South Island, the New Zealanders don't really have prescribed burning as part of hazard reduction - certainly not in indigenous vegetation since fire is not believed part of the ecology here since lightning is very rare. Mechanical reduction is all that's allowed. The only burning that's done is by private landowners and on agricultural land.


The Rural Fire Authority is very aggressive in pursuing remuneration from those who have caused fires.  In some high profile cases, where the RFA won the court judgement against a resident who had started a fire in a business, but who did not have commercial insurance to pay the costs, the publicity has caused others to make sure they get insurance and are more careful. The couple who lost the case was also required to share their story with other people.. Defendants usually settle out of court because the RFA has the backing of law to collect and they usually do.  They don't have to prove negligence only causation which makes it easier - if you caused it, you pay even if you didn't mean too. They want home and land owners to realize they have primary responsibility to take care of fire on their property.  In the Urban Fire Districts, it doesn't work that way.  People pay a tax on insurance to pay for fire protection and those who start fires  are not prosecuted.