Prescribed burning involves the controlled setting of fires, during periods of lower fire risk. Prescribed burns are carried out to achieve one or more purposes including fuel management, flora and fauna management or commercial forest management (associated with re-establishment of harvested forests).
Prescribed burns are usually carried out in autumn or spring when the weather is milder and fire behaviour is easy to predict. While prescribed burn targets are set, not all planned prescribed burning is carried out. The actual ignition of burns depends on the combined suitability of weather conditions, available resources, fuel moisture and other 'prescribed' conditions.
Fuel reduction burning is risk reduction, not risk elimination. Extended abnormally dry conditions, in conjunction with low levels of soil moisture can still create the potential for extreme fire conditions and behaviour.
Prescribed burns are usually carried out in autumn or spring when the weather is milder and fire behaviour is easy to predict. While prescribed burn targets are set, not all planned prescribed burning is carried out. The actual ignition of burns depends on the combined suitability of weather conditions, available resources, fuel moisture and other 'prescribed' conditions.
Fuel reduction burning is risk reduction, not risk elimination. Extended abnormally dry conditions, in conjunction with low levels of soil moisture can still create the potential for extreme fire conditions and behaviour.
Items in Prescribed Fire: Research and reports
- How Does Fuel Reduction Burning Influence Forest Carbon Storage? - September 2010
- Eucalypt Decline in the Absence of Fire - September 2009
- Bushfire Smoke: Progress report on the impact on firefighters part one - May 2009
- Satellites Improve Grasslands Curing Assessment - May 2009
- Remote Sensing - June 2009
- Long-term Impacts of Prescribed Burning on Regional Extent and Incidence of Wildfires- Evidence from Fifty Years of Active Fire Management in SW Australian Forests - December 2009
- The Distribution and Dynamics of Grass-Layer Plants in a Tropical Savanna: Results of the Territory Wildlife Park Fire Experiment in Northern Australia - September 2008
- Prescribed Burning: Its role in the containment of bushfires and the conservation of biodiversity - September 2008
- Savanna Fire Ignition Experiment - September 2008
- Different Strokes for Different Folks: The challenge of managing fire regimes for whole of biodiversity conservation - September 2008
- Fire and Biodiversity Conservation in the U.S.: Assessing current conditions and predicting future trends - September 2008
- Fire Paradox: A European initiative on integrated wildland fire management - September 2008
- Fire Behaviour in Plantations - September 2008
- Sediment Movement Following Prescribed Burning- A Comparison of Three Tecniques Including Visual Observation, Erosion Pins and Digital Close Range Photogrammetry - September 2008
- Quantifying the Effectiveness of Fuel Management in Modifying Wildfire Behaviour - September 2008
- Responding to the Growing Complexity of Bushfire Management in Victoria - September 2008
- What Determines Area Burned? Relative importance of fuel management, ignition management and weather in five landscape-fire-succession models - September 2008
- Fire and Forest Health at the Bauple Fire Experiment - September 2008
- The Response of a Snowgum (Eucalyptus Pauciflora) Woodland to Prescribed Burning - September 2008
- Abandoning Natural Fire in Australia: What has been forgotten? - September 2008
- Fire and Cultural Resource Management: Aboriginal Wetland Burning in Kakadu National Park - September 2008
- Soil Temperatures During Autumn Prescribed Burns: Are they sufficient to trigger germination in fire responsive species? - September 2008
- Prescribed Burning in Temperate Peri-urban Australia: How and why is the decision to burn made? - September 2008
- Smoke from Wildfires and Prescribed Burning in Australia: Effects on human health and ecosystems - October 2008
- Classifying the Fire Response Traits of Plants: Is a species-level classification adequate? - November 2008
- Perceptions and Evidence of Pre-European Fire in the Australian Alps - May 2008
- Trapping Sediment Following Bushfire at Mount Bold Water Reservoir, South Australia - May 2008
- Wildfire Return Intervals in Semi-arid South-western Australia: Effects of fuel age and spatial structure - July 2008
- Live Fuels and Forest Flammability - July 2008
- An Analysis of the Australian Literature on Prescribed Burning - January 2008
- Do Fire and Fungi Help Keep Eucalypts Healthy? - August 2008
- The Effects of Fire on Invertebrate Food Web Structure in Buttongrass Moorlands of Tasmania - August 2008
- Do Repeated Fires Negatively Impact on Fauna Associated with Coarse Woody Debris? A case study from south-western Victoria - August 2008
- Research in the Wildfire Chronosequence Project - August 2008
- Untangling the Effects of Soil Properties on Methane Oxidation - August 2008
- Determinants of Rainforest Occurrence: The role of fire - August 2008
- Fire Behaviour Experiments in Shrubland Fuels - April 2008
- Reconstructing the Fire History of an Unmanaged Semi-arid Landscape: The Lake Johnson Region, Western Australia - November 2007
- Prescribed Fire in Young Eucalypt Plantations: Is it worth the risk? - May 2007
- Contribution of Prescribed Fire to the Management of Conservation Lands and Multiple-use Forests in Western Australia - August 2007
- Wildfire Chronosequence Project Establishment Report - August 2007
- Bluegum Plantation Fire 23 March 2008: Fire behaviour in a 6 year old Eucalyptus globulus plantation during conditions of extreme fire danger - October 2006
- Physical Properties Determining Flammability in Scleophyllous Leaves and Flame Propagation within Shrubs and Trees in the Australian Alps - March 2006
- Fire Interval Sequences to Aid in Site Selection for Biodiversity Studies: Mapping the fire regime - June 2006
- Changes to the Grass Layer After Fire in a Tropical Savanna - July 2006
- Project FuSE South Australia: Fuel dynamics and fire behaviour in mallee-heath vegetation - July 2006
- Fire, Fungal Richness and Functional Groups - July 2006
- Patchiness of Prescribed Burns in Dry Sclerophyll Forests in South-eastern Australia - July 2006
- Thinning and Prescribed Fire Effects on Fuels and Potential Fire Behaviour in an Eastern Cascades Forest, Washington, USA - July 2006
- Comparison of the Sensitivity of Landscape-fire-succession Models to Variation in Terrain, Fuel Pattern, Climate and Weather - January 2006
- Simulation of Prescribed Burning Strategies in South-West Tasmania Australia- Effects on Unplanned Fires, Fire Regimes and Ecological Management Values - December 2006
- Simplifying Assessment of Forest Management Practices for Invertebrates- How effective are Higher Taxon and Habitat Surrogates for Spiders Following Prescribed Burning? - August 2006
- Ecological Burning: Can we achieve both fuel management and conservation objectives? - August 2006
- The Effect of Prescribed Burning on Sediment Movement in the Mt Lofty Ranges - August 2006
- Wildfire Chronosequence Project - August 2006
- Flame Propagation in Shrubs and Trees From the Australian Alps - August 2006
- The Use of Prescribed Fire in Bushfire Control - April 2006
- The Australian Smoke Management Forecast System - April 2006
- Examination of Prescribed Burning Practices - October 2005
- Landscape Fires as Social Disasters: An overview of 'the bushfire problem' - November 2005
- Research Priorities Arising from the 2002/2003 Bushfire Season in South-eastern Australia - May 2005
- A Porous-medium Model for Vegetation in Bushfires - July 2005
- Using Statistics to Determine the Effectiveness of Prescribed Burning - April 2005
- Lessons from the Burning Bush: The influence of live fuels on fire behaviour - April 2005
- Plant Species Contribution to Fire Intensity: Towards a total fuel model - October 2004
- Can Weather Indices on Ignition Day Predict Large Fires in Sydney Region? - October 2004
- Climate Change and Bushfire Incidence - November 2004
- Fuel Reducing Regrowth Forests with a Wiregrass Fuel Type: Fire Behaviour Guide and Prescriptions - September 1993
- Fire Behaviour and Fuel Reduction Burning: Bemm River Wildfire October 1988 - September 1990
