A Review of Best Practice for Prescribed Burning

The report provides a detailed account of the prescribed burning practices that are considered to be examples of best practice. The practices north of the Tropic of Capricorn are described separately from those in southern Australia and New Zealand. The information for the report was collected from national workshops held in 2012.

Deliberate and purposeful vegetation burning has a history spanning more than 40,000 years in Australia. For aboriginal people throughout Australia the use of fire was central to their way of life and their connection with the land itself – a part of how they cared for country.

Allowing fuels to accumulate to dangerous and unprecedented levels is both unnatural and unsafe.

Following the tragic Victorian Black Saturday fires in 2009, a much greater focus is on the treatment of fuels to both manage the risk of dangerous fires and maintain the ecological balance in fire adapted ecosystems.

The report provides ideas and processes that can be incorporated into a fuel management approach that reflects the best of what has already been applied and proven. The report will be followed up with guidance material that is specific to the planning at the tactical and strategic levels of fuel management programs. The report is recommended to fuel management practitioners and students of fire ecology for its detail. Those concerned about the impacts of fuel reduction burning can see how professional and responsible agencies go about good burning.