SYDNEY, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Logging of Australia's native forests likely contributed to the severity of deadly bushfires which swept the nation last summer, a new research revealed on Wednesday.
By increasing fuel loads and changing the ecology of wet forests, logging increases the risk and severity of fires, a team of researchers from the Australian National University (ANU), Macquarie University, University of Queensland (UQ), and the Wildlife Conservation Society found.
"Logging causes a rise in fuel loads, increases potential drying of wet forests and causes a decrease in forest height," UQ Professor and Wildlife Conservation Society Director James Watson explained.
"It can leave up to 450 tons of combustible fuel per hectare close to the ground - by any measure, that's an incredibly dangerous level of combustible material in seasonally dry landscapes."
The team was investigating Australia's historical and contemporary land-use in the wake of the devastating bushfires, which were the worst in the country's history, killing at least 34 people and destroying an estimated 18.6 million hectares of bushland.
Study lead author Prof. David Lindenmayer from ANU said there were land management actions authorities could take to help prevent such fires from occurring in the future.
"The first is to prevent logging of moist forests, particularly those close to urban areas. We must also reduce forest fragmentation by proactively restoring some previously logged forests," Lindenmayer said.
The research concluded that logging should be removed from areas where it adds to the fuel load and creates risk to human safety such as close to housing developments. Enditem
