Rangeland fire regimes risk sustainability

THE CRC’s latest fire report, Fire management in the rangelands , reviews practices and regimes in these areas. Commissioned by the Australian Department of Environment and Heritage under the Natural Heritage Trust, the report contains a checklist for fire management plans, with links to a range of information.

Fire is an integral part of the ecosystems of Australia’s rangelands, and its management is one of few tools available to land managers in this zone. Sustainable pasture production is dependent on maintaining soils and pastures through sound fire management.

Some elements of rangeland ecosystems are resilient to variations in fire regime, others are sensitive to fire intensity and/or sensitive to fire intervals – so no single fire regime applied at landscape scales can meet the needs of multiple land management objectives.

While there is relatively low level of disturbance in Australia’s rangelands compared to the intensive agricultural areas of eastern, southern and south-western Australia, the abundance and richness of biodiversity is declining. There is evidence that inappropriate fire regimes are partly responsible.

The report includes definitions of terms and concepts; descriptions of the major vegetation types within the rangelands followed by a list of key references; communication principles and planning priorities; a list of sources of information, i.e. fire species attributes, and fire and land use mapping resources and links to other resources. Download the report as a free PDF from the CRC website, or contact Peter Jacklyn at the CRC for a hardcopy.