Why is prescribed burning promoted in wa

All of this is underpinned by a rigorous approvals process. The section on planning for prescribed burning has more detail on what is involved. In the regions with distinct seasons, prescribed burning takes place in spring and autumn when conditions are cooler, vegetation and fuel moisture levels are higher and weather conditions are more stable. In regions with wet and dry seasons, such as the Kimberley, burning is conducted from January to June wet to early dry season , when winds are predictable and the ground vegetation is not fully cured, and fires tend to be relatively low intensity, patchy and limited in extent.

Also night conditions are conducive to fires extinguishing. The section on fuel loads and fire intensity has more information about burning in different seasons. In Western Australia, prescribed burning involves many players as part of a shared responsibility. Parks and Wildlife is responsible for prescribed burning on land that it manages. The department works effectively alongside and consults with the community, Department of Fire and Emergency Services DFES , local governments and industries such as grape growers and other landholders.

Wherever feasible, Parks and Wildlife, DFES and local government will conduct their prescribed burning programs as a joint exercise. Prescribed fire also called controlled burning is an important tool that is applied to the landscape in a planned and controlled way.

Land management agencies use prescribed fire in a safe and carefully planned manner to help reduce wildfire risk to communities, municipal watersheds and other values, as well as restore natural ecologic processes and functions, and to achieve integrated land-management objectives.

In many cases pre-treatment of the vegetation must be completed before prescribed fire is applied. The first entry with prescribed fire may be in the form of pile burning to initially reduce the amount of thinned vegetation on the ground or used when understory or broadcast burning are not an option. Jay Inslee. The law requires DNR, which approves burn permits and enforces rules that limit smoke drifting into communities during controlled burns, to report findings from the project to the Legislature by The report must include recommendations on continuing or expanding prescribed burning in Washington.

Prescribed burns are intentionally set fires designed to burn at low intensity to reduce fuels and the threat of catastrophic wildfires. Prescribed fire mimics the natural cycle of wildfire that has been interrupted by decades of fire suppression. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, said he introduced the bill in response to devastating wildfires that swept across Okanogan County during the past two summers.

The law aims to ensure that air quality restrictions placed on outdoor burning do not impede the use of prescribed burning to improve forest resiliency, Kretz said. To understand this properly it is necessary to understand the complex and dynamic process of bushfire suppression.

Bushfires burnt millions of hectares in NSW and Victoria this summer. Credit: Wolter Peeters. Instead, firefighters resort to alternative strategies including a combination of direct, indirect and parallel attacks. But in every case, the options, and likelihood of success, are greater if the fire is burning slower and at a lower intensity because it is burning in young, light fuels.

Appliances such as water bombers have little effect on an intense forest fire, but can assist to control slower moving, lower intensity fires. The most trying bushfire situation occurs when there is wind shift and the long flank of the fire becomes a wide head fire. Therefore, containment work on the 'pressure' or 'danger flank' is always the priority.

This is more likely to succeed in young, low-fuel situations when flank fire intensity is relatively low, even under severe weather conditions. If part of the fire is burning in very light fuels as a result of prescribed burning, this section can take a lower priority, allowing resources to be deployed to higher priority areas around the fire perimeter, or to defending properties, or they can be dispatched to other fires in a multiple fire situation.