Measuring bushfire fuels is important to many different people for so many different reasons;

Calculating the likely success of first attack; prioritising fuel reduction treatments; figuring out optimum fire frequency; calculating fuel accumulation rates; assessing risks and hazards; measuring carbon release; estimating smoke production (to name a few).

This project poses questions to those interested in fire fuels: Why collect fuels data? What do we seek to learn from fuels data? Should we collect fuels data across Australia in a uniform way? How would we store the information? What are the gaps in the knowledge about fuels? and more...

About my project

Welcome to the blog for my Churchill Fellowship study tour.
I am off to the USA and Canada during June and July 2011 to review methods of fuel assessment and the tools used to predict the accumulation of fuels in natural landscapes.

Well, that's the theory anyway. At the moment we don't have a national approach to fuels in Australia and we probably should.  I hope I can bring home some ideas that might help.


No doubt I will learn a lot of other things while I am away, that's why this trip is so exciting!

My travelling companion is Ric (aka Eric Claussen). He is an institution in himself in so many ways, an esteemed ranger and natural land manager in the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, as well as a much respected and experienced fire manager and fire fighter. He is an entertaining and thought provoking fire trainer and a sharer of knowledge and of everything. We have enjoyed travelling together for the last 25 or so years.
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