Fuel reduction burning ( FRB ) goes by many names including prescribed burning , planned burning , controlled burning , hazard reduction burning , candling , edge burning and sometimes even ecological burning . However , the objective is generally the same : to reduce available fuel safely . FRB is very different from high intensity slash or regeneration burning after logging operations . All burning is subject to seasonal conditions and varies greatly year-to-year . Burning operations require considerable skill and experience as well as large investments of people and equipment to achieve them safely within the short timeframe available during spring and autumn . Reviewing over 40 years of FCV annual reports reveals that in 1944-45 , strip and patch burning was conducted on , the 1954-55 report has fuel reduction burning at , and 10 years later in 1964-65 a similar figure of was achieved . By 1974-75 the area fuel reduced had increased to nearly . In the last full financial year of the Forests Commission , 1982-83 ( the year of droughts and the deadly Ash Wednesday bushfires ) , fuel reduction burning was carried out on , which was about one-third of the fifteen year average of . By contrast , burning targets set after the Black Saturday Bushfires Royal Commission lifted to 5 % of the National Parks and State Forests estate , about
Ash Wednesday bushfires
Ash Wednesday bushfires
Forests Commission Victoria