A MOUNT Korong Eco Watch’s will ask people to consider the use of fire in land maintenance and the potential ecological benefits. 
The forum next month will have several expert panellists attending to assist with facilitating discussions. 
The experts include Paul Foreman from Blue Devils Consulting, Dale Tonkinson the biodiversity officer in the CFA and Oli Moares on behalf of Djarra. 
“We really want local people and experts to come together and create processes and resources for the use of fire in land maintenance,” said group secretary Sally Gardener.
“While we have expert panellists to speak at the forum we want to hear from people with local knowledge and experience of the area,” Sally said. 
“We don’t want it to be a simple question and answer for the panel, we want as many people involved in the discussion as possible.”
The forum will have four session which begin with a short talk from experts to summarise the ideas and issues relating to the topic. 
“After the opening talk it’s more about having discussions as a group and building communication,.
“You don’t have to know everything about the topic to be able to take part and share your thoughts, it’s a learning opportunity for everyone.”
The group has partnered with Loddon Plains Landcare to host the forum after they received a grant from Landcare Victoria last year. 
“We found after the 2019-2020 bushfires people were more aware of alternative practices for land maintenance including the use of fire,” Sally said, “we wanted to learn more about this and how it could apply to our local area.”
The Mount Korong Eco Watch group has been meeting monthly since November to discuss parameters and benefits of using fire in land management. 
“We mostly have online meetings, but we have been able to meet on site a few times, not to actually do any burning but to observe the land and consider how it could be used as a tool for ecological and community benefit,” said Sally.
These discussions led to the creation of the forum as they wanted a way to involve people from the wider community in discussions. As well as the consideration of how fire can be used, they also consider the different local criteria and what the best course of action for land maintenance is for specific areas. 
“While there haven’t been major fires in the Loddon Plains area recently, bushfires are always a risk and we want to find ways to reduce the risk for our communities and prevent the spread of fire where we can,” Sally said. 
“We want people to be well informed about fire, including its ecological use and benefit.”