The benefits of prescribed burning biodiversity [AU]Friday 18 Sep 2026
For thousands of years, Aboriginal cultural burning shaped these ecosystems. Frequent, mild, patchy fires maintained open, grassy understoreys, stable fuel dynamics, and predictable habitat mosaics that supported native fauna and plant regeneration. The collapse of traditional fire stewardship following European settlement triggered profound ecological shifts. Dense shrub layers replaced grassy groundcovers, leading to continuous fuel accumulation and woody thickening. Paleoecological evidence confirms that today’s severe megafires are unprecedented in the long-term record, as intense landscape-scale fires were historically rare. Without regular mild fire, many ecosystems are crossing critical resilience thresholds. This results in canopy collapse, loss of hollow-bearing trees, altered nutrient cycling, and widespread wildlife declines. Reinstating low-severity prescribed burning interrupts this destructive trajectory. By reducing fuel loads and continuity, mild fire moderates wildfire behavior and protects soil-root physiology. Because Australian flora and fauna co-evolved with fire, low-severity burns generate essential habitat mosaics that promote survival, species richness, and rapid recolonization. While severe summer bushfires devastate ground-dwelling mammals, hollow-dependent species, peat swamp frogs, and long-lived invertebrates, cool prescribed fires allow native species to survive and recover quickly. Furthermore, regular low-intensity fire under good soil moisture prevents dense sapling pulses of wattles and eucalypts from suppressing native grasses and locking forests into high-severity fire states. As climate change intensifies fire risks across Australia, proactive fire management is more critical than ever. Without frequent, mild burning, ecosystems will continue to accumulate heavy fuels and face catastrophic collapse. Reinstating appropriate fire regimes provides the only practical means to restore ecological stability, protect fire-sensitive refugia, and rebuild the natural resilience that characterized Australia’s landscapes for millennia. Read the full report Source & image credit: John O’Donnell | ||
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