A bushfire action plan which protects people, property and nature.

While fire is a natural part of the Australian landscape, this does not justify the haphazard use of prescribed fire in any landscape or in any situation. Fire size, season, frequency and arrangement in the landscape need to be appropriate to the ecosystem and the requirements of fire sensitive and threatened fauna in particular. A number of current fire management practices are of significant concern, including the massive increase in ‘hazard reduction burning’ without scientific assessment of fauna requirements and ‘fire breaks’.

These practices are needlessly destroying nature, pushing wildlife closer to extinction and in some cases increasing the fire risk to people and property by making areas more fire prone. These destructive practices could be avoided if existing information on fauna requirements was used to underpin fire management and a program of continuous assessment and knowledge development undertaken.

• Download the '6 point plan to reduce bushfire risk' (PDF 44kb)
  

The outstanding work of firefighters on the front line needs to be backed up with the best available knowledge, planning and resources to ensure operations are as effective as possible in protecting people, property and nature. There is an urgent need to increase investment in these areas and rapidly establish scientific underpinning to fire management, as well as properly resourcing implementation and fire operations.

There is still significant scientific debate about the effectiveness and appropriateness of the much of the  current fuel reduction burning program, and there are significant questions over the validity of the fire break establishment program. Environmental groups want to see the science that supports the current program, including a scientific justification for so-called hazard reduction burns in specific areas and the scientific justification for the route and extent of fire break establishment. Environmental groups are particularly concerned about the lack of impact assessment of these programs on biodiversity, particularly given their uncertain benefits to reduce the extent, frequency and severity of fire.
 
Key concerns:
 

1. Impacts on fauna of broad scale prescription burns – the requirements of fauna in terms of fire size, frequency and arrangement in the landscape are largely unknown. It is crucial these knowledge gaps are filled as a priority. In the interim, a precautionary approach should be taken to keep prescribed burn size and scale to a minimum.

2. There is an urgent need to monitor the effects of fire on flora and fauna in the landscape – very little monitoring of both flora and fauna is occurring

3. While fire managers are to be congratulated for the recent advances in knowledge on the requirements of flora and vegetation communities in terms fire, this knowledge alone does not provide an ecological basis for prescribed burns, and in fact can result in peverse outcomes – for example small unburnt areas that survive wildfire are being preferentially sought out for prescribed burning when these areas can be vital refuges for fauna.

4. That frequent fuel reduction burning in some vegetation communities of the one site may actually promote more fire prone vegetation

5. There has also been insufficient independent study of the impacts of current native forest logging regimes in terms of whether these practices increase the susceptibility of some EVC’s to fire. Scientific research has established that clearing and logging dries out landscapes, thereby making them more fire prone. Conversely as disturbance is reduced and forests and other natural systems recover they hold and store more moisture, making them fire resistant. The reduction of the resilience of native forest ecosystems to fire as a result logging and fragmentation has, to our knowledge not been adequately studied or considered in current approaches to bush fire management and planning. Nor has the question of to what extent logging and fragmentation increases the risk, frequency or extent of bushfire in a climate affected environment

6. The construction of fuel reduction burns / breaks to reduce the risk of wildfire affecting areas of native forest that are commercially attractive to the logging industry. These areas should be managed for their nature conservation values, and the construction of firebreaks / burns for this purpose may unnecessarily impact ecosystems adjacent to logging areas – further expanding the destructive influence of clearfell logging.

Prescribed fire and firebreaks are a major risk in terms of acceleration the spread of pest plants and animals – partcularly over the longer term

7. With the onset of climate change, mega-bushfires that burn massive areas are expected to occur more often.

The Wilderness Society has a 6 point plan to reduce the bushfire risk and help protect people, property, nature and wildlife. 

1. Improve aerial surveillance to detect bushfires as soon as they start.

2. Ramp up hi-tech, quick response capability, including more 'Elvis' helicopters to fight bushfires as soon as they ignite.

3. More research into fire behaviour and the impact of fire on wildlife and their habitat.

4. Around towns and urban areas - prioritise the protection of life and property with fuel reduction and fire break management plans.

5. In remote areas and National Parks - prioritise the protection of wildlife and their habitat through scientifically-based fire management plans.

6. Make native forests resistant to mega-fires by protecting old-growth forests, rainforests and water catchments from woodchipping and moving logging into existing plantations.

• Download the '6 point plan to reduce bushfire risk' (PDF 44kb)
  

 The Wilderness Society would like to see the implementation of the above plan. Clearly the plan proposed has significant policy and resource implications.
 

Learn more about:

• WildCountry & Climate Change: How WildCountry is tackling the urgent issue of Climate Change.
  
• Case study: 'The Great Southern Sanctuary' - an ambitious program to protect and restore nature in Western Victoria, southern NSW, and South Australia.

Related links:

• Download the '6 point plan to reduce bushfire risk' (PDF 44kb)
  
• Download the Victoria WildCountry pamphlet (PDF 1 Mb)
  
• Go to the Victoria Naturally website (external link)