Backburning

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Backburning in a savannah
Creating a backfire (USA)
Backburning method of counterfire at Townsville in Queensland , Australia
Prefire backburning method at Alice Springs in the Northern Territory , Australia

In Australia, two methods of bushfire prevention and control are called backburning (dt. 'Counterfire') and fuel burning (dt. 'Pre-fire') . The methods of fire fighting with fire are used either before ( preventive burning ) or when expected ( fuel burning ) as well as against ( backburning ) bush fires . In particular, the principle of preventive burning is not only used in Australia, but also in the USA, Canada and increasingly in many European countries, such as B. Portugal and Spain.

Demarcation

Both methods are hardly linguistically differentiated in Australia and are usually referred to as backburning. In Australia, backburning or fuel burning is not understood as the traditional aboriginal burning of landscapes or by slash and burn .

In North America, the indigenous people also used the setting of fire for their purposes. Today, these fire fighting methods are included under the term Controlled Burning , which also includes landscape maintenance with the help of fire.

history

Before the time of human settlement, large bushfires arose on the Australian continent exclusively through natural causes such as lightning strikes , volcanoes and spontaneous combustion .

The controlled burning in the bush served the Aborigines to create paths through thicket and prickly wood, to promote existing crops and to initiate new growth, to create hunting opportunities and to obtain useful plants for immediate consumption or cooking. Fire also served them to obtain warmth or to transmit messages, and also for spiritual purposes. The use of the purpose-oriented fire followed certain rules, which were based on the course of the vegetation and the needs of the Aborigines. Early European explorers and settlers captured Aboriginal customs with fire. The fires extended in the landscape over the entire course of the year. Most of the fires were of relatively low intensity and in most cases only burned small areas, which hardly resulted in large-scale uncontrollable bushfires . The experiences have been passed on from generation to generation.

Methods and actors of backburning and fuelburning

One method of pre-fire ( fuel burning ) is often carried out at night or under suitable weather conditions. When the risk of forest fires is still low, the highly flammable fuel such as bushes, dry grass, leaves and twigs is burned through controlled fire in order to remove a substantial part of the basis of an impending forest fire. If a vegetation fire breaks out, it no longer has the chance to turn into a disaster fire, and the emergency services are better equipped to fight the fire. Approximately five percent of the bushes in Victoria state use this method every 20 years. The implementation is subject to state authorities and their control. This “prescribed burning” has been in use in the USA, Australia and Canada since the 1960s. It is still in development in Europe, but has gained in importance in numerous European countries, especially against the background of the devastating wildfire in the summers of 2018 and 2019. In Germany there are now clubs like the forest fire team that offer training for fire brigades and other actors in the field of controlled burning. In the Mafra region north of Lisbon, the local civil protection has started to use prescribed burning on private land. Over 200 hectares of land have been burned there since 2006, which has greatly reduced the number of fires. Since 2017, annual international workshops on the subject have been held in Mafra.

The method of counter-firing ( back burning ) is used when a bush fire has erupted. Here, a line of smaller fires is placed in front of the bush fire, which should limit the further spread.

Both methods involve dangers, since the fires can spread uncontrollably and quickly when the weather changes, especially when strong winds arise, and can endanger people and settlements.

criticism

Above all, animal rights activists criticize the fact that the game could be trapped by both fires in the event of a counterfire, since most wild animals are normally able to flee from a fire.

Fires in Australia put the slow moving koalas at risk. Other endangered species are the large rabbit- nosed bucket and lizards such as Liopholis kintorei , which are endangered when a fire is set. This also applies to individual rare plants such as the Boronia viridiflora shrub , which only grows in Arnhem Land. Furthermore, bird nests are destroyed by flames. In addition, the resulting smoke can also endanger people and cause them to be poisoned by smoke . In addition, those who carry out controlled firing need appropriate personnel and financial prerequisites as well as political support in order to avoid dangers.

Web links

Commons : Backburning  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Explainer: backburning and fuel reduction , August 8, 2014, on theconversation.com. Retrieved March 27, 2016
  2. ↑ a b Traditional Aboriginal burning from June 12, 2013, on dpaw.wa.gov.au. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  3. ↑ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Waldbrandmanager recommends: Prevention instead of expensive extinguishing technology | DW | 07/27/2018. Accessed March 9, 2020 (German).
  4. ^ Forest fire team - Association for forest and wildfire fighting eV
  5. ↑ Europe in flames: how can we tackle the wildfires sweeping Britain and the continent? In: The Telegraph . August 3, 2018, ISSN  0307-1235 ( telegraph.co.uk [accessed March 9, 2020]).
  6. ↑ Invitation to International Prescribed Fire Meeting (FLAMEWORK). In: Resilience Blog. January 31, 2019, accessed March 9, 2020 (American English).
  7. ↑ Gary Kemble, Back-burning: fighting fire with fire , October 23, 2013 at abc.net.au. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
  8. ↑ Nina Griesshammer, Christian Beuter, Thomas Köberich: Forests in flames. Causes and consequences of global forest fires . WWF forest fire study. 6., revised. Edition. Berlin 2012, p. 62 ff.
  9. ↑ Cassandra Moseley, Courtney Schultz, Heidi Huber-Stearns: Planned burns can reduce wildfire risks, but expanding use of 'good fire' isn't easy. Retrieved March 9, 2020 .