Origins:
In September 2004 the Prime Minister announced an additional
three million dollars for the Bushfire CRC to undertake
fire-related research in the high country (alpine, sub-alpine,
montane and lower altitude mixed-species forest) regions of
south-eastern Australia. The funding was provided to address
some of the key issues arising from the National Inquiry into
the 2003 Bushfires (Nairn, G. et.al. 2003, A Nation Charred: Report on the inquiry into
bushfires . Parliament of the Commonwealth of
Australia).
The bushfire CRC established a steering committee
to identify the key issues for which there was a poor
scientific evidence. These included key issues identified by the
Nairn Inquiry and included issues highlighted
by recommendations 16, 17, and 18. The steering committee
developed a multidisciplinary project addressing a wide range of
issues within the key fields of ecology, risk management and social
science.
Aims:
The project is building a scientific evidence-base to improve
our current understanding of the effects of wildfire in the
high country and the effects and effectiveness of fuel management
practices with particular focus on factors including:
- Affects of disturbance (e.g.: grazing and fire) and a changing
climate on ecosystem processes (greenhouse gas emissions, water use
and carbon emissions), species and community distribution, on the
flammability of high country landscapes, and on fuel and fire
management.
- Understanding human resilience in fire-prone regions.
- Managing the risk of fire across the landscape for the
protection of people, property and ecology.
The project will provide scientific evidence and tools
that will underpin future policy and practice decisions
for the management of higher elevation land in Australia.
Objectives:
On a more detailed level, the project will:
- Contribute to improved evidence-based policy for prescribed
fires to manage the protection of communities, ecological values,
water yield, and mitigation of wildfire.
- Consolidate and synthesise the body of data relating to plant
growth, fuel accumulation and fire regimes in Australia's high
country.
- Understand the interactions among grazing and browsing,
encroachment of woody weeds, and fire in relation to management of
ecological values and resources such as water.
- Understand community values and expectations for fire
management of high country areas.
- Provide scientific evidence to stakeholders in a usable way
(tools, evidence-based models etc.).
- Establish effective engagement with and among land managers in
high country areas, of all tenures and across state and territory
boundaries, to ensure transfer of research outcomes into policy and
practise.
- Examine social, legal, organisational, economic, and regulatory
and policy issues influencing bushfires and bushfire management in
Australia's high country.
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HighFire's Snowy Plains LTER (Long Term Research
Sites) was officially launched by the Hon. Gary Nairn
(MP) in February 2006.
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