Outdoor burning

Outdoor burns are banned year round in Richmond and Motueka townships with some exceptions for small cooking fires, outdoor fireplaces, and braziers.

Other townships within the Tasman district and the outskirts of Richmond and Motueka are zoned ‘fire sensitive’ and have a ban on outdoor burning from 1 June until 1 September (unless burning diseased horticultural crops).

Before you light, check our discharge to air rules to make sure your proposed fire complies. 

• Air quality management – Outdoor burning rules (summary)
• Tasman Resource Management Plan (Part VI – Discharges)

You can check the boundaries of the Fire Ban and Fire Sensitive areas on our Tasman Resource Management Plan planning maps (Part VI: Discharges, special maps 256 – 276) 

• Tasman Resource Management Plan planning maps

If in doubt, contact the Council to check if your proposed outdoor fire is permitted.

Vegetation and garden waste can be taken to your local greenwaste transfer station, or stock piled to dry and burn outside of the restricted periods (where this is allowed).

Recycling or your local transfer station is the best way to dispose of other waste materials.  Recycling programmes operated by AgRecovery (for agrichemical containers) and Plasback (balewrap and silage sheeting) offer alternatives to burying or burning this type of plastic.

The review of the Tasman Resource Management Plan is underway and we are developing a work programme to better understand our air quality issues. 

As part of this, we will be looking at our outdoor burning practices, while enabling our land-based industries to undertake essential land management for example orchards, horticulture and forestry. This will involve looking at alternatives to burning vegetation waste, or better practices that can be used to ensure that burning takes place outside of autumn and winter when air pollution is at its worst.

Orchard Burn Experiment

In 2019, working in partnership with Scion (a crown research institution) and a local contractor (Riverstone Balage Ltd), staff undertook an outdoor burning trial to monitor the effectiveness of best practice outdoor burning (partly funded by an Envirolink Medium Advice Grant).

The trial assessed three types of burn methods, being (a) a large burn pile thrown together with no ‘hot base’; (b) a well-built fire pile with a hot base to which vegetation is added; and (c) a fire pile built within a trench with a hot base to which vegetation is added, and a large fan blowing air into the base of the fire. 

The trial demonstrated the benefits of best practice burning (e.g. having a hot fire base, adding vegetation in stages, and blowing air into the base of the fire) to minimise smoke and create an efficient burn.  This research supports the Council’s best practice expectations and will assist with the outdoor burning rule review.

Read the Full Report: Tasman Orchard Burn Experiments (August 2020) (pdf 3 MB)

See also:

• Motueka, Riwaka and Brooklyn air quality study

Where outdoor burning is allowed, every effort must be made to minimise smoke. Follow this guide when burning vegetation from garden waste and land management practices to minimise your contribution to air pollution:

• Check the weather conditions, wind speed and direction and continue to check throughout the burn
• Wind speeds of 10-25km/hr are ideal (movement of twigs and small branches)
• Burn well-seasoned, dry vegetation only
• Stack vegetation and untreated wood loosely to allow air flow in. Do not compact the material.
• Do not leave a fire to smoulder overnight – restart fires the next day.
• Get the fire burning hot as quickly as possible and keep it hot throughout the burn, as lower temperatures mean more smouldering and more smoke. During start up there are some simple tricks, such as using a garden leaf blower, to force air into the base of the fire which gets a hot base burning.
• Minimise the frequency and number of fires as much as possible.
• Try not to burn in the evenings or during the weekends to avoid smoke nuisance and upsetting your neighbours.
• For large burns of horticultural waste consider adopting the trench and forced air burn method as documented in ‘Tasman Orchard Burn Experiments (August 2020)’ report above.

See also:

• Good Practice Guide to Outdoor Burning (pdf 468 KB) 
• This video from Fire and Emergency NZ on how to safely burn crop residue on your property
• This video from Fire and Emergency NZ on how to pile burn safely

Fire restrictions are initiated by Fire and Emergency New Zealand for public safety reasons, and may be in force at any time of the year in the Tasman district. You may be required to obtain a fire permit from Fire and Emergency New Zealand before lighting fires in the open air. This is in addition to any resource consent or permitted activity conditions under the Tasman Resource Management Plan.

To check the current fire season and apply for a permit (if necessary), go to www.checkitsalright.nz or call 0800 658 628.