| Fighting Fire With Fire: Bushfires That Help Australia |
| Thursday, 26 January 2012 | Dawn Marshallsay | Blog Entry |
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But before we suggest trying to eradicate bushfires completely, it’s important to know that they’re vital for Australian wildlife. While Aborigines burned grasslands for food for thousands of years, they were helping the environment at the same time. Such fires encouraged the growth of edible lilies, orchids and yam daisies, and rejuvenated the rank grasses upon which animals could graze. Banksia plants still rely on fire to open their seedpods today. But global warming has upset nature’s fine balance. If the fires are too frequent, animal and plant populations die out before they have time to repopulate. This is where man can help, by controlling when and where the fires take place, known as controlled/prescribed burning, hazard-reduction burning, or Swailing. While one-third of Victoria was once covered in grassland, only 1% of that survives today. Wildfires put at risk the small amount that remains, endangering the wildlife that depends on it. The Australian Ecosystems burns team has restored about four hectares of grassland in Victoria. They have protected the land from wildfire by burning it into burnt and un-burnt areas. Burning vegetation into a mosaic pattern early in the dry season reduces the fuel-load and land area that could catch fire later. This method of reducing CO2 emissions in the long-term is the main motive of the West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement Project (WALFA), which employs indigenous fire managers in Australia’s savannas. As many bushfires are started by arson, it pays to be extra careful during the bushfire season, which varies across the country: winter in the north; spring for southern Queensland and northern New South Wales; and summer in the south. But how can you stop a bushfire when it’s coming toward you? With fire again, this time in the form of firebreaks and back burning. Under section 47 of the 2004 Bushfires Act, all rural landowners in the Northern Territory must establish a firebreak (something inflammable, like a river, road or bulldozed clearing) around their property, where a line of small fires can be started to back burn toward an approaching fire. Back burning is when a fire is started so that it travels away from the property to meet the front of the approaching fire, using up all the fuel as it goes so that the approaching fire can’t continue toward the house. Unfortunately, controlled burning is not foolproof in preventing the spread of bushfires, especially under extreme weather conditions caused by climate change. It would be impossible, and detrimental to the environment, to banish fire completely from the driest inhabited continent on Earth, so the most we can do is control fire with fire while we fight climate change. Additional resources: Help the Earth, Spread the Word: Share this article with family and friends by clicking on the "Email This" or "Share This" links below right. Then see TODAY'S TOP STORIES.
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Bushfires in Victoria, an Australian state located in the southeast section of the country, killed 173 people and injured more than 400 in 2009. Those 400 fires—the worst on record—were blamed on prolonged drought and extreme temperatures caused by global warming. Southeastern Australia is one of the world’s most fire-prone areas, along with southern California and Mediterranean Europe. 
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