AS we recover from fire and prepare for the next onslaught, we are hearing a lot of discussion about hazard reduction burns.
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While it's imperative to control the build-up of fuel loads, it is also important to understand issues related to flammability.
Fuel load and flammability both need to be considered when making management decisions.
Fuel load can be a measure of volume or mass, whereas flammability relates to the ability of the material to burn. It's no surprise that the exceedingly dry and hot conditions have increased the flammability of the bush, the grass and even some backyard gardens.
OTHER RECENT ECO NEWS COLUMNS:
As an illustration, on the way to Orange ascending from Evans Plains, many travellers would have noticed the remains of a fire, likely started from a discarded cigarette, which burnt a section of the road reserve and into the open woodland on private property.
In this case, climate change is likely to have contributed to the hot and dry conditions that increased the flammability of the vegetation, but it didn't cause the fire.
Rather, the cigarette (or other trigger) started the fire and it took hold in the highly flammable grass. Initially, it was the flammability of the fuel, rather than the fuel load itself, which got the fire going.
Fuel loads and flammability of the litter and, indeed, the very plants themselves in forests, grasslands and shrublands are highly variable.
Burning too regularly or not frequently enough, or at sub-optimal fire temperatures, may well exacerbate the future fire risk.
This is because the flammability of the bush changes throughout the fire-cycle as plant species, canopy shading and litter accumulation change.
Research has shown that some forests actually become more fire-resistant with age.
Land management is all-encompassing. It must factor in local and state planning provisions, forest management strategies to reduce the risk of uncontrolled wildfires, wildlife habitat, as well as the protection and preservation of agricultural lands and forest resources such as timber.
Land management also considers cultural, scenic and conservation values, clean air, water quality and water quantity.
Regardless of all our best attempts, uncontrolled fires will always be part of our landscape.
It is logistically impossible and undesirable to reduce the load and flammability of fuel across Australia to levels that eliminate fires.
Communities are best placed to manage our land when they are informed by listening to experts in the field, such as our wonderful firies and emergency service personnel, dedicated scientists, including fire ecologists, and indigenous elders and rangers.
There is considerable research in the fields of fire behaviour, risk management and identifying critical areas that need to be fire-managed to safeguard critical assets.
The language of the fire and post-fire season, I would suggest, should be about land management rather than simply fuel reduction, as the latter is not the universal panacea.
