The answer to burning questions

They also demonstrate with great clarity that far from being ecologically damaging, regular, frequent mild burning is also essential (via the interaction with nutrient release and recycling) to sustaining the health and productivity of Australian bushland and its biota. Not only must good fire management be the basis for ecological management, the latter cannot be achieved in the absence of the former.

At one level, this book could be regarded as an advanced primer on bushfires, fire science and fire use in Australia, and as such should be compulsory study for high school students and undergraduates. For example the factors influencing fire behaviour are discussed but not in un-necessary detail. At another level the book becomes polemical, as the authors take up, and take on, the views of those who oppose fuel reduction burning. Here they are particularly critical of the ideologists who approach the subject of fire from a quasi-religious standpoint, and of the game-players, immersed in the make-believe world of their computer models. They also warn against that most prevalent of flaws in the work of many who have studied and make pronouncements about fire: drawing universal conclusions from the short-term results of a single fire.

The debate is well and calmly summarised in a section near the end of the book. Here the authors make ten unanswerable points to support the value of fuel reduction burning, and they gently debunk the ten most commonly used arguments put forward by those who oppose it. Their views are fully supported by reference to published and peer-reviewed literature (over 220 research papers and books are cited) and there are explanatory end-notes and an index.

I have quibbles. For example, the book appears to be aimed more at dissenting academics (who are incorrigible in their thinking and therefore unswayable) rather than the general public. I do not agree with the authors' concerns that human-induced climate change will exacerbate the bushfire problem in Australia. There have always been droughts, heat waves and hot, strong northerly winds and we must expect and prepare for them irrespective of the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere. I also smiled wryly when I read their optimism about the emergence of a new scientific consensus over fuel reduction burning. There is no sign of this in Western Australia. But in all other respects I found this to be a well-argued and clearly presented study. Effective bushfire management programs must be incorporated within land management systems in Australian forests ... and not just for wildfire mitigation, but also to promote the health and resilience of native ecosystems. And in my experience, confirmed by Adams and Attiwill, these things cannot be achieved in the absence of effective fuel reduction burning programs.