Planned and unplanned fire regimes on public land in south-east Queensland

Abstract

Land management agencies in Queensland conduct planned burning for a variety of reasons, principally for management of fuels for human asset protection and biodiversity management. Using Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service’s archived manually derived fire reports, this study considered the individual components of the fire regime (extent, frequency and season) to determine variation between planned and unplanned fire regimes in south-east Queensland. Overall, between 2004 and 2015, planned fire accounted for 31.6% and unplanned fire 68.4% of all fire on Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service state-managed land. Unplanned fire was more common in spring (September–October), and planned fire was more common in winter (June–August). Unplanned fire affected 71.4% of open forests and woodlands (148563ha), whereas 58.8% of melaleuca communities (8016ha) and 66.6% of plantations (2442ha) were burnt with planned fire. Mapping fire history at a regional scale can be readily done with existing publicly available datasets, which can be used to inform the assessment of planned burning effectiveness for human asset protection and the management of biodiversity. Fire management will benefit from the continued recording of accurate fire occurrence data, which allows for detailed fire regime mapping and subsequent adaptive management of fire regimes in the public domain.

Quantifying potential effect of 2019 fires on national parks and vegetation in South‐East Queensland

“…The use and success of full reduction burns in limiting fires under current and future warmer conditions is an area of ongoing interest in terms of their ecological effect(s) in eastern Australia requiring further research (Eliott et al . 2020; Hislop et al . 2020; Lindenmayer et al .…”

“…The deployment of specialist firefighters and irrigation was effective, but such approaches require considerable money and resources and are not viable in most cases. The use and success of full reduction burns in limiting fires under current and future warmer conditions is an area of ongoing interest in terms of their ecological effect (s) in eastern Australia requiring further research (Eliott et al 2020;Hislop et al 2020;Lindenmayer et al 2021).…”

Adaptive prescribed burning in Australia for the early 21st Century – context, status, challenges

“…In establishing a national precedent, for the State of Western Australia, Howard et al (2020) describe the development of a comprehensive adaptive management and monitoring framework, albeit untested, for prioritising prescribed burning targets and indicators on public lands throughout that vast state. For relatively densely settled south-east Queensland, and the very sparsely settled rangelands covering two-thirds of Australia, Eliott et al (2020) and Russell-Smith et al (2020) respectively utilise contemporary fire history mapping products to explore the extent to which targets and indicators, even if loosely defined, currently are being met. Both papers identify practical measures and means for enhancing monitoring, evaluation and implementation delivery.…”

Beyond a tragic fire season: a window of opportunity to address climate change?

“…Not all hazard reduction burns could be completed as in some areas it rapidly became too dry to burn safely (Kinsella and Jackson 2020). In fact, between 2004 and 2015, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (QPWS) did not reach its annual planned burn targets during most years in South East Queensland (Eliott et al 2019). On QPWS statemanaged land between 2004 and 2015, planned burns, aimed at human asset protection and the management of biodiversity, accounted for 31.6 per cent of all fire, while unplanned fires (from human or natural causes) accounted for 68.4 per cent (Eliott et al 2019).…”

“…Unplanned fires are often difficult to contain, occur during drier conditions, burn at a higher intensity, and therefore may have greater ecological ramifications (Eliott et al 2019). As there is a high risk of planned burns going out of control if the conditions are wrong, those responsible for fire management justifiably remain cautious to protect the full range of biodiversity including our unique wildlife, as well as property.…”