Thanks Diana. I have already read the NZFS advice re landscaping, and that’s the issue - there is no vegetation management for fire prevention by the largest local land manager, the council, who “manage” the forest and roadsides and many other public spaces here. My restoration plot is on Council land, and I have asked for advice from Council, and found that out.
Last year I rang the local Fire Service asking if it was Fire Watch season, and what guidance they had, and the person who responded was mystified. He said there is no fire watch season in the city.
In the last week there has been a lot of publicity about fire threats to semi-urban areas in Australia, and yesterday an article saying that all NZ currently has dry soil conditions hence increased fire risk. So hopefully the wheels of government both national and local are creaking into action.
My own response has been to cease weed control to avoid creating more dead vegetation, while trying to maintain existing soil moisture, encouraging the growth of live vegetation esp. the less flammable species for shade reducing surface heat on the ridge along the roadside, while avoiding having more dry material on the ground.
The conundrum seems to echo the large-scale issues:
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weeds tend to produce dead material, so removing them has to be timed so they rot rather than dry, and the current extended dry season makes that problematic.
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On a dry ridge, the native plants that grow spontaneously will tend to be the highly flammable manuka and kanuka
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removing dry dead material, either in the bare areas outside canopy or in the forest itself where canopy is thin, exposes the ground to more sun and evaporation, stressing the existing small trees and halting growth of seedlings.
Even dead material placed in the forest under shade of tall trees showed little sign of rotting over the last year.
If the council were to undertake fire-preventive vegetation management, they would take some time to learn the current situation, eg the years of dead weed vine around dead or dying trees hidden by live weed vine, and to plan and co-ordinate its removal and disposal.
Hopefully this will start before NZ is much drier.
Much of what I have read so far echoes what I learnt as a child as campfire safety, so I will look at your links, thanks, at a later time when I am less emtionally reactive.