The application of prescribed fires in the Alps of Italy is still at an experimental, more than operational, level. Only few experiences have been documented, mostly in the Western side. Furthermore, local expertise of shepherds and peasants has been lost during last decades and shall be recovered. The pilot project Ohonj na Buonah started at the end of 2010 as a local initiative in the Municipality of Taipana (Friuli - Venezia Giulia region, North-eastern Italy) and became an official project of Friuli - Venezia Giulia Regional Authority (RAFVG) in 2011, in collaboration with Working on Fire Europe and the University of Padova in charge of executing and monitoring the Rx interventions. Ohonj na Buonah is a local dialect expression whose meaning is “Fire of Campo di Bonis” (where Campo di is the site toponym). Frequent human-induced fires occurring at Campo di Bonis, as in the surrounding area, gave the reasons for starting and testing new tools for fire management. The fire history of Taipana is strictly associated with highly frequent events that local people and forest services relate to fuel reduction (illegal) practises. The area is a grassland of about 50 hectares, fragmented in several properties, surrounded by forests and likely to become a forest as well, if fuel management is not realized. Then, a question arose: why do not prevent people from burnings by their own and plan properly the use of fire? Overall objectives of the project are in between of fire prevention and landscape management, since prescribed burning are going to prevent private burning initiatives and, at the same time, to avoid a change of habitat from opened grassland to dense forest. On a multi-year perspective, the project aims at enhancing fire-wise community-based practices as to bring new lymph to the training programme of the forest and fire community. In this paper legal topics are discussed, like the process of getting a permit in Friuli - Venezia Giulia for burning in private properties, as well as technical issues concerning fire behaviour assessment and definition of the prescription window. The scientific monitoring of fire effects is described and preliminary results are provided. Although Ohonj na Buonah is a local project, it is one of the first milestones for enabling the use of fire in the Alps as a safe tool for fuel management, and an best-practise example of spontaneous and proactive initiative.
The pilot project Ohonj na Buonah for studying the application of prescribed burning in the Eastern Alps of Italy (Friuli - Venezia Giulia region)
ASCOLI, DAVIDE;
2011-01-01
Abstract
The application of prescribed fires in the Alps of Italy is still at an experimental, more than operational, level. Only few experiences have been documented, mostly in the Western side. Furthermore, local expertise of shepherds and peasants has been lost during last decades and shall be recovered. The pilot project Ohonj na Buonah started at the end of 2010 as a local initiative in the Municipality of Taipana (Friuli - Venezia Giulia region, North-eastern Italy) and became an official project of Friuli - Venezia Giulia Regional Authority (RAFVG) in 2011, in collaboration with Working on Fire Europe and the University of Padova in charge of executing and monitoring the Rx interventions. Ohonj na Buonah is a local dialect expression whose meaning is “Fire of Campo di Bonis” (where Campo di is the site toponym). Frequent human-induced fires occurring at Campo di Bonis, as in the surrounding area, gave the reasons for starting and testing new tools for fire management. The fire history of Taipana is strictly associated with highly frequent events that local people and forest services relate to fuel reduction (illegal) practises. The area is a grassland of about 50 hectares, fragmented in several properties, surrounded by forests and likely to become a forest as well, if fuel management is not realized. Then, a question arose: why do not prevent people from burnings by their own and plan properly the use of fire? Overall objectives of the project are in between of fire prevention and landscape management, since prescribed burning are going to prevent private burning initiatives and, at the same time, to avoid a change of habitat from opened grassland to dense forest. On a multi-year perspective, the project aims at enhancing fire-wise community-based practices as to bring new lymph to the training programme of the forest and fire community. In this paper legal topics are discussed, like the process of getting a permit in Friuli - Venezia Giulia for burning in private properties, as well as technical issues concerning fire behaviour assessment and definition of the prescription window. The scientific monitoring of fire effects is described and preliminary results are provided. Although Ohonj na Buonah is a local project, it is one of the first milestones for enabling the use of fire in the Alps as a safe tool for fuel management, and an best-practise example of spontaneous and proactive initiative.
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