Project: Future Fires

Future fire regimes in the Pyrocene

Large and severe wildfires impact people and places globally, and recent examples of extensive wildfires around the world – from Southeastern Australia, Western USA, Greece, Portugal, Canada, and, unexpectedly, in the historically cool climates of Sweden and England – are stark reminders of the enduring challenge they pose to societies and ecosystems. The Future Fire Regime program seeks to consider emerging threats from changing fire regimes on a range of fronts – whether this be predicting likely future fire scenarios, understanding the threat these pose to ecosystem values, to understand how forest and fire management can adapt.

Project timeline: 06/2021 – 06/2024

More Projects

Restoration of eucalypt forest in Wilsons Promontory National Park- Implications for forest values and site and landscape flammability

Wilsons Promontory provides an example of how repeated short interval fires can prevent the regeneration of a Eucalyptus canopy in a range of ecological vegetation classes. The ‘destocking’ of forests can dramatically alter the composition, ...

Optimizing bushfire management in the Upper Yarra Water Supply Catchments

The forested catchments of the Upper Yarra Water reservoir are a vital part of Melbourne’s water supply. However, large-scale high-severity bushfires are a natural occurrence in these forests and bushfire risk is a key consideration for ...

Towards a shared understanding of future fire

We have entered an era which some call the Pyrocene. It is a time of escalating and increasingly complex interactions between humans and fire. If we are to live with fire, we must understand it and how it is changing in response to both global ...