Planned burning in Tasmania. III. Revised guidelines for conducting planned burning

Planned burning is the deliberate use of fire under specified conditions for the purposes of fuel management, ecological management, promoting agricultural green pick and weed management. The Tasmanian fire management agencies, the Tasmania Fire Service, Forestry Tasmania and the Parks and Wildlife Service, through the Tasmanian Fire Research Fund, have conducted a review of Tasmanian planned burning guidelines and methodologies. The aim of this review was to minimise the risk of adverse outcomes from planned burning, whilst also ensuring that the burning is performed safely and meets fire management objectives. This information has been summarised into a series of papers covering current practices and supporting information, fire risk assessment, and (this paper) revised planned burning guidelines. The current paper reviews and presents revised guidelines for performing planned burning in dry eucalypt forests and woodlands, heathlands, dry scrub, wet scrub, buttongrass moorland and grassland, and for weed management (mainly gorse removal).