A biological basis for planned burning

Abstract

Fires in Victoria have shaped the vegetation for many millennia. Anthropogenic fires have been used to manage the landscape, initially as an agricultural tool, latterly for ecological reasons and as a means of minimizing the damage done by wildfires. Some characteristics of Victoria’s fire planning and management processes are discussed, such as the requirement for maintenance of biodiversity values and the Adaptive Experimental Management approach being followed. Similarly, some of the most critical regeneration characteristics of plants and vegetation types are highlighted and how these affect burning plans. Given the lack of fully-populated data sets various synthetic whole-of-ecosystem approaches are necessary and the derivation and application of one of these (establishment of Maximum and Minimum Tolerable Fire Intervals) is presented. Ecological constraints on existing (fire and fuel) management are discussed and directions for future research and on-going management considered, including the gaps in our current knowledge base.