In the face of a climate likely to become hotter and drier in the future, and with bushfires continuing to pose a significant threat, a variety of forestry-related research initiatives are currently underway across Australia.
As an industry, forestry is particularly vulnerable to bushfire threat, with the associated risks having the potential to impact plantation companies, native forest managers, wood processors and manufacturers in a variety of ways.
The latest episode of WoodChat focuses on a recently-completed FWPA-supported research project aimed at increasing the industry’s capacity to minimise the impacts of future bushfire events. Hear from Dr Kate Parkins on how this work is focused on updating fuel accumulation and fire spread models for Australian forestry plantations. The project was co-funded by most of Australia’s large plantation managers, with matching funding from the Australian Government.
During the episode, we also provide a round-up of other interesting projects around bushfire mitigation and management happening around Australia, including an update from David Bowman about the Firehawk detection software, as well as an update from Rodney Carter on how traditional cultural and cool-burning practices can be effective means of mitigating bushfire risk.
Click below to discover more about the research and initiatives we cover in this episode:
- National Bushfire Management Policy Statement – Objectives and KPIs: click here
- FWPA project: ‘Characterising & Managing Fire Risks To Plantations Under Changing Climates‘ (Project number: VNC518-1920)
