The article has distorted the CSIRO press release. The press release and the scientific paper (below) stress the need for the reduction of wild fires, and support early Dry season (prescribed) fires to achieve this.

The scientist involved Dr Anna Richards and her project leader are upset at the mis-representation of the science they discussed and are writing a letter to the editor of the NT News to clarify the position.

If anything, Dr Richards was trying to advocate early Dry season burning as a means of reducing wildfires.

The NT News article stated that Dr Anna Richards of the CSIRO said that “bushfires deliberately lit by authorities should be halved”. Dr Richards denies saying this and her project leader, Dr Gary Cook also denies that she said this.

The CSIRO press release and the scientific paper it is based upon stress a reduction in wild fires is needed.

The NT News article also says that Dr Richards “more savannah should be burnt early in the dry season to reduce the fuel load and prevent super-hot blazes later in the year”. This is correct.

Dr Richards based much of her research on data provided by Bushfires NT and thanks Bushfires NT staff for their help in preparing the paper.

Prescribed burning is key to reducing wildfires and their impacts. The graph at ATTACHMENT A shows that more prescribed burning leads to less wildfire and less fire over all. There is a large body of international research that repeat these findings.

Any fair reading of the Press Release or the original scientific article would lead to a conclusion that the author of the NT News article has distorted the facts to present their own (biased) view of prescribed burning. Here is an actual quote from the scientific paper:

“Patchy fires may be achieved through frequent, random (at landscape-scales), low intensity burns that maintain habitat diversity and reflect, to some extent, traditional Aboriginal fire management practices. Thus, although logistically demanding; intensive fire management may be required to ensure fine-scale habitat patchiness so that the multiple objectives of C sequestration, emissions abatement and biodiversity conservation are achieved in northern Australian savannas.”