The global fire science community gathered to discuss the latest research, practices and future themes at the 7th International Fire Behaviour and Fuels Conference held concurrently in Canberra Australia, Boise Idaho, Canberra Australia and Tralee Ireland in April 2024.
The Fire Behaviour and Fuels conference was hosted by the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF), the professional membership association for wildland fire professionals. IAWF is an independent organisation whose membership includes experts in all aspects of wildland fire management, and whose independence and breadth of global membership expertise offer a neutral forum for the consideration of important, at times controversial, wildland fire issues.
11 keynote speakers and 363 presentations took place concurrently around the theme Fuel, Fire and Smoke: Evolving to Meet Our Climate Challenge, with Australasian delegates treated to more than 100 research presentations from colleagues, peers, research students and industry leaders.
Key themes tackled included: risk modelling; fuel management; emerging tech and approaches; cultural perspectives; human dimensions; and weather and climate.
Opening keynote speaker in Canberra and Boise and speaking from her home in Indiana, US Fire Administrator Dr Lori Moore-Merrell provided global context to the ongoing and increasing challenges facing fire response and management agencies, drawing on recommendations from the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission’s recent report to the US Congress to improve federal policies related to the mitigation, suppression and management of wildland fires, and the rehabilitation of land devastated by wildland fires.
Dr Moore-Merrell emphasised the fire science community’s role in meeting our climate challenge through the development of fire-adaptive communities and preparedness. She also stressed the need for “intelligence, not just information” through leveraging information across all fire and emergency management agencies.
Dr Lachlan McCaw AFSM drew on his extensive experience as a fire scientist in Western Australia and elsewhere to celebrate fire management achievements over the past 40 years, and where to from here. Prof Nerilie Abram Professor in Climate Science at the Australian National University spoke on the future of fires and fire ecology, highlighting the impact of climate variability on dangerous fire weather in South-East Australia.
Dr Dean Yibarbuk, Chair Warddeken Land Management Ltd, presented a highly impactful keynote about the disconnection of First Nations peoples in Western Arnhem Land from their cultural fire practices with colonisation, and their subsequent re-establishment in the last 20 years. Streamed to delegates in Boise, Dr Yibarbuk shared his and the Warddeken Rangers’ mission to “share the gift of understanding of fire without fear” with fire managers around Australia and the world.
The subsequent panel, comprising Dr Yibarbuk, Aidan Galpin (SA Country Fire Service), Dean Freeman (Riverina Local Land Services), Dr Rowena Morris (Natural Hazards Research Australia), Kirsty Babington (ACT Parks and Conservation Service), and former IAWF President Dr Mike DeGrosky visiting from the US, and hosted by anthropologist and disaster psychologist, Dr Steve Sutton, unpacking culture, human nature and fire management. Posed by Dr Sutton, “all human endeavour ecological and our collective endeavours cultural. Do the varied communities and organisations we are part of understand how these relationships work and how they need to adapt to meet climate change?”
Professor of Wildlife Conservation, Prof Sarah Legge from Charles Darwin University highlighted the value of small patch burning on species biodiversity through the Pirra Jungku project alongside the Karajarri Rangers on their Country in the Great Sandy Desert in the Western Kimberley region of Western Australia.
The concept of ’right fire’ carried out in the correct cultural way by the correct people, and the way these people interact with the fire is key to ensuring diversity of the short, mid and mature growth vegetation crucial to biodiversity in the Great Sandy Desert, as well as reducing the impact of feral animals.
The final keynote speaker, Dr Dan Pronk brought a much needed – and welcome – change of pace, focusing on building resilience in people working in high stress, high consequence roles. A former SAS doctor with more than 100 active missions in Afghanistan, Dr Pronk developed the Resilience Shield approach to building resilience in response to the high level of stress he experienced once discharged from active service.
His unique personal insight into the sustained, ongoing stress and trauma associated with first response roles, as well as the overwhelming evidence that members of the emergency sector experience higher rates of mental and physical illness were a timely reminder that everyone in this space – from frontline staff, to planning and researchers - are all at risk of the effects of high stress and burnout, and can train to build resilience and manage their stress response.
Dr Pronk’s three points for resilience impact are:
- Meditation for 10 minutes a day, most days of the week
- Deep, inter-personal relationships and connection
- Sleep and sleep hygiene
IAWF proudly acknowledged Alen Slijepcevic AFSM, Country Fire Authority, with the Distinguished Service Award, recognising his commitment and outstanding contribution to furthering the goals of the Association, including as IAWF President 2018-19.
Alen is well known in the Australian and international fire science and management sectors, and his continuing passion and commitment to fire management science is deserving of this recognition.
Poster awards were also conferred on the following recipients:
- Best Poster: Extending the Overall Fuel Hazard Guide, Bianca Pickering, University of Melbourne (FLARE Wildfire Research)
- Best Student Poster: Fire Rescue Missions Utilise Air Drone Carriers, Aoran Cheng, Hong Kong University
- People’s Choice: Healing a Community Through Collaborative Bushfire Risk Reduction, Andrew Govanstone, Country Fire Authority
Pre-conference workshops included Exploring the state of the science if ember transport and impacts, presented by the University of New South Wales and The future of fire-weather intelligence, presented by the Bureau of Meteorology. Field trips went to the CSIRO National Bushfire Behaviour Research Laboratory and demonstration burn, and a prescribed burning tour of the ACT.
Attendee feedback highlighted the popularity and relevance of:
- targeted workshops and fielding trips, especially a prescribed burning tour of the ACT hosted by ACT Parks and Conservation Service, where local Indigenous representatives shared First Nations’ perspectives on cultural burning, as opposed to prescribed burning and the importance of getting people back on Country; as well as the challenge of managing flammable areas as Canberra's wildland and regional-urban interface grows;
- being connected with the fire science community, learning from each other and networking with new people;
- the keynote speakers and panels, showcasing intersectional research, themes and issues facing the fire science, emergency and disaster sectors, broader scientific and resilience spaces; and
- the quality, diversity and breadth of the scientific presentations, those who shared them and the people in the room who elevated/expanded/built on that knowledge. Attendees could move across streams, giving them a holistic picture of the research and themes being explored by the fire science community.
Keynote presentations and other select sessions will be available at www.iawf.com. OR https://canberra.firebehaviorandfuelsconference.com/