Burning to reduce fuels: the benefits and risks of a public health protection strategy

Johnston, Fay H

doi:10.5694/mja2.50751

Topics

We need to burn, but it is not a cure‐all and the side effects can be serious

Fire disasters are one of many serious and escalating environmental health problems that the world, and Australia in particular, is now facing.1 During the black summer of 2019–2020, population exposure to bushfire smoke was almost an order of magnitude greater than that documented for any of the fire seasons for at least the previous two decades, and it was estimated to be responsible for more than 400 premature deaths.2 The fires themselves, including firefighting‐related accidents and injuries, claimed a further 33 lives.3 Furthermore, the trauma experienced by communities affected by the fires, including serious risks to life, homes and livelihoods, will have ongoing psychological, physical health, social and economic impacts.4

Menzies Institute for Medical Research, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS

Correspondence: fay.johnston@utas.edu.au

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

1. Whitmee S, Haines A, Beyrer C, et al. The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health. Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health. Lancet 2015; 386(10007): 1973–2028.
2. Johnston FH, Borchers Arriagada N, Morgan GG, et al. Unprecedented health costs of smoke‐related PM2.5 from the 2019–20 Australian megafires. Nat Sustain 2020. In press.
3. Jalaludin B, Johnston F, Vardoulakis S, Morgan G. Reflections on the catastrophic 2019–2020 Australian bushfires. The Innovation 2020; 1: 100010.
4. Newnham EA, Titov N, McEvoy P. Preparing mental health systems for climate crisis. Lancet Planet Health 2020; 4: e89–e90.
5. Rutter H, Savona N, Glonti K, et al. The need for a complex systems model of evidence for public health. Lancet 2017; 390: 2602–2604.
6. Bowman DM, O'Brien JA, Goldammer JG. Pyrogeography and the global quest for sustainable fire management. Annu Rev Env Resour 2013; 38: 57–80.
7. Bowman DMJS, Balch J, Artaxo P, et al. The human dimension of fire regimes on Earth. J Biogeogr 2011; 38: 2223–2236.
8. Penman TD, Collins L, Duff TD, et al. Scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of prescribed burning. In: Leavesley A, Wouters M, Thornton R; editors. Prescribed burning in Australasia: the science, practice and politics of burning the bush. Melbourne: Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Council, 2020; pp 99–110.
9. Scott RE, Neyland MG, McElwee DJ, Baker SC. Burning outcomes following aggregated retention harvesting in old‐growth wet eucalypt forests. Forest Ecol Manag 2012; 276: 165–173.
10. Meier EA, Thorburn PJ. Long term sugarcane crop residue retention offers limited potential to reduce nitrogen fertilizer rates in Australian wet tropical environments. Front Plant Sci 2016; 7: 1017.
11. Costello O. Fire has spirit. In: Leavesley A, Wouters M, Thornton R; editors. Prescribed burning in Australasia: the science, practice and politics of burning the bush. Melbourne: Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Council, 2020; pp 66–67.
12. Morgan G, Tolhurst K, Poynter M, et al. Prescribed burning in south‐eastern Australia: history and future directions. Aust For 2020; 83: 4–28.
13. Trauernicht C, Brook BW, Murphy BP, et al. Local and global pyrogeographic evidence that indigenous fire management creates pyrodiversity. Ecol Evol 2015; 5: 1908–1918.
14. McCaw WL. Managing forest fuels using prescribed fire–a perspective from southern Australia. For Ecol Manag 2013; 294: 217–224.
15. Schwilk DW, Keeley JE, Knapp EE, et al. The national Fire and Fire Surrogate study: effects of fuel reduction methods on forest vegetation structure and fuels. Ecol Appl 2009; 19: 285–304.
16. Johnson CN, Prior LD, Archibald S, et al. Can trophic rewilding reduce the impact of fire in a more flammable world? Philos T R Soc B 2018; 373: 20170443.
17. Curran TJ, Perry GL, Wyse SV, et al. Managing fire and biodiversity in the wildland‐urban interface: A role for green firebreaks. Fire 2018; 1: 3.
18. Bowman DM, Daniels LD, Johnston FH, et al. Can air quality management drive sustainable fuels management at the temperate wildland–urban interface? Fire 2018; 1: 27.
19. Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Authorities Council. National position on prescribed burning. Melbourne: AFAC, 2016. https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/media/4869/national-position-on-prescribed-burning.pdf (viewed Aug 2020).
20. Brownson RC, Fielding JE, Green LW. Building capacity for evidence‐based public health: reconciling the pulls of practice and the push of research. Annu Rev Public Health 2018; 39: 27–53.
21. Dovers S. Prescribed burning as a public policy problem. In: Leavesley A, Wouters M, Thornton R; editors. Prescribed burning in Australasia: the science, practice and politics of burning the bush. Melbourne: Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Council, 2020; pp 15–17.
22. Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council. Overview of prescribed burning in Australasia. Report for the National Burning Project, subproject 1. Melbourne: AFAC, 2015. https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/media/4893/overview-of-prescribed-burning-in-australasia.pdf (viewed Aug 2020).
23. Penman TD, Bradstock R, Price O. Reducing wildfire risk to urban developments: Simulation of cost‐effective fuel treatment solutions in south eastern Australia. Environ Modell Softw 2014; 52: 166–175.
24. Cirulis B, Clarke H, Boer M, et al. Quantification of inter‐regional differences in risk mitigation from prescribed burning across multiple management values. Int J Wildland Fire 2020; 29: 414–426.
25. Bowman DM, Williamson GJ, Abatzoglou JT, et al. Human exposure and sensitivity to globally extreme wildfire events. Nat Ecol Evol 2017; 1: 0058.
26. Furlaud JM, Williamson GJ, Bowman DM. Simulating the effectiveness of prescribed burning at altering wildfire behaviour in Tasmania, Australia. Int J Wildland Fire 2018; 27: 15–28.
27. Clarke H, Tran B, Boer MM, et al. Climate change effects on the frequency, seasonality and interannual variability of suitable prescribed burning weather conditions in south‐eastern Australia. Agric For Meteorol 2019; 271: 148–157.
28. Black AE, Hayes P, Strickland R. Organizational learning from prescribed fire escapes: a review of developments over the last 10 years in the USA and Australia. Curr Forestry Rep 2020; 6: 41–59.
29. Cascio WE. Wildland fire smoke and human health. Sci Total Environ 2018; 624: 586–595.
30. Horsley JA, Broome RA, Johnston FH, et al. Health burden associated with fire smoke in Sydney, 2001–2013. Med J Aust 2018; 208: 309–310. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2018/208/7/health-burden-associated-fire-smoke-sydney-2001-2013
31. Borchers Arriagada N, Palmer AJ, Bowman DM, et al. Exceedances of national air quality standards for particulate matter in Western Australia: sources and health‐related impacts. Med J Aust 2020; 213: 280–281.
32. Broome RA, Johnston FH, Horsley J, Morgan GG. A rapid assessment of the impact of hazard reduction burning around Sydney, May 2016. Med J Aust 2016; 205: 407–408. https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2016/205/9/rapid-assessment-impact-hazard-reduction-burning-around-sydney-may-2016
33. Williamson G, Bowman DMJS, Price O, et al. A transdisciplinary approach to understanding the health effects of wildfire and prescribed fire smoke regimes. Environ Res Lett 2016; 11: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/11/12/125009
34. Driscoll DA, Bode M, Bradstock RA, et al. Resolving future fire management conflicts using multicriteria decision making. Conserv Biol 2016; 30: 196–205.

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.