Fire as a Management Tool
Fire, both as a natural event and its use by the Aboriginal people, has been significant in shaping much of our native flora and fauna. Journals of early European navigators contained many references to smoke sitings over the continent. The characteristics of the smoke indicated that fires were used for cooking, keeping warm, and that other fires spread over large areas of land.
Many of our native plants, animals and ecosystems exhibit characteristics that reflect adaptations to natural stresses such as fire and drought.
The use of fire in land management has many applications. The term 'planned burning' refers to the use of fire to achieve planned land and resource management objectives. Planned burning is conducted at certain times of the year, and aims to achieve specific heat intensities and rates of spread, according to the desired management objective(s). On public land within Victoria the use of planned burning falls generally into one of three main categories:
- Fuel Management (fuel reduction burning)
- Flora and Fauna management (ecological burning)
- Commercial forest management
Further information on ecological and fuel reduction burning
Information Sheet: Using Fire to Manage our Parks and Forests (PDF - 365 Kb) Information sheet: Fire and Victoria's Parks and Forests (PDF - 378 Kb) Management of Fire for the Conservation of Biodiversity 1999 - Workshop Proceedings, Fire & Ecology Group (PDF - 635 Kb) Guidelines and Procedures for Ecological Burning on Public Land in Victoria 2004 (PDF - 591 Kb) Developing an ecological burning strategy - A Practitioners Manual (2003) - ArcView version (PDF - 1.8 Mb) Developing an ecological burning strategy - A Practitioners Manual (2003) - MapInfo version (PDF - 1.3 Mb) Ecological Effects of Fuel Reduction Burns 1992 (PDF - 1.4 Mb)Information about planned burning can also be found in DSE Research Reports, such as report numbers 56 through 66 published in 2003.