The Victorian mountain ash forest has been severely affected by fires and logging. To determine the actual health of the forest, we need to look at the quality, not just the quantity of what remains.
Graeme/flickr
In the aftermath of fires or logging, conservation needs to focus on recovering the health of the remaining vegetation, not just the size of the forest or woodland.
This fire season has been particularly damaging to urban areas.
AP Photo/Reed Saxon
Max Moritz, University of California, Santa Barbara
With wildfires continuing to rage across southern California, a fire researcher says lowering fire risk means reconsidering where and how we build our communities.
A wildfire burns behind a winery in Santa Rosa, California.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
As firefighters contain the fires that have been raging since Oct. 8, California’s wine industry is assessing the damage and hoping the tourists who fled the ash-filled air return.
The complete ban on burning peatlands, while effective in reducing forest and land fires, may in the long run harm the local agriculture industry.
Reuters/Beawiharta
Dede Rohadi, Centre for International Forestry Research
Zero-burning policy could hurt small-holder farmers. The ban on the use of fire for land clearing has raised the costs to prepare their land for planting and to keep it pest-free.
Avoiding fires in Indonesia’s peatlands should be a common goal of everyone involved.
Antara Foto/Jessica Helena Wuysang/ via REUTERS
Indonesian peatlands are important to many people: farmers, bureaucrats, businesspeople, and conservationists. But preserving this value for everyone will mean listening to everyone’s concerns.
Scientists work hard to understand fire activity and how it relates to vegetation communities, topography and climate change.
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Tim Curran, Lincoln University, New Zealand; George Perry, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau, and Sarah Wyse, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
You might think having trees around your home is the worst idea during a bushfire, but some plants can actually help repel fire.
An indigenous ranger burns vegetation in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.
AAP Image/Peter Eve
European invasion completely disrupted the way aboriginal Australians managed fire. Learning from Australia’s first people could help us fight fires in the future.
Indigenous Australians continue to manage fire in a way that reduces the risk to property and people.
AAP Image/Peter Eve
It is now well documented that women and men are exposed to bushfire risk in different ways and degrees due to everyday divisions of labour and gendered norms.
Firefighters mop up after bushfires in Victoria.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
News images of traumatised homeowners huddled in front of the ashes of their homes have become increasingly familiar in recent years. But the question has to be asked - why are we so often surprised when…
Firefighters battle a bushfire close to homes in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, in October this year.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
Australians have always had to live with bushfires - but climate change is driving that fire danger even higher. And we’re not talking about a distant threat to future generations. According to real observations…
You do not find many climate change sceptics on the end of [fire] hoses anymore… They are dealing with increasing numbers of fires, increasing rainfall events, increasing storm events. – A senior Victorian…
Managing Director, Triple Helix Consulting; Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Professorial Fellow, ANU Fenner School for the Environment and Society, Australian National University