Fire management – what has changed?

Disastrous fires across temperate Australia in the early to mid 20th Century precipitated a revolution in forest fire management. Broad area fuel reduction burning, often by aerial ignition, made it possible to minimise the occurrence of very large high intensity wildfires. From the 1980s demographic and political changes brought a counter revolution. Managers concerned about theoretical, ecological impacts of burning allowed fuels to accumulate, suppression again became the major fire management activity, and disastrous fires returned. In many forest areas roads and fire trails were blocked or no longer maintained, making access for fire suppression more difficult. In the last decade there have been a number of developments which are pulling Australian bushfire management in opposing directions. These include: publication of several Australian compendia on ecology and management of fires, transfer of large areas of multiple use forests into national parks and the declaration of roadless wilderness areas, listing of frequent fire as a threatening process under environmental legislation, many very large and damaging fires and subsequent government enquiries, a number of international conferences on fire management, establishment of the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), a current trend of global warming, declining rainfall or droughts in parts o