Plant responses to a re-emergence of cultural burning in long-unburnt, threatened temperate woodlands

For tens of thousands of years, Indigenous Peoples have shaped the
structure and function of ecosystems through cultural burning, which has
many important cultural, ecological and societal values. In recent years,
public interest in cultural burning has increased in response to more
severe wildfires globally, and alongside greater calls from Indigenous
Peoples for cultural revitalisation, as well as generations of Indigenous
leadership in advancing community self-determination. This has sparked the
development of many new agency-supported cultural burning programs
worldwide. However, these programs are often limited by an absence of
cross-cultural partnerships, and a lack of understanding of how
contemporary ecosystems respond to burning. Here, we report the ecological
outcomes of an Indigenous-led cultural burning program, delivered by a
cross-cultural partnership between Aboriginal communities, ecologists,
land managers, and emergency responders. Our ecological study was
underpinned by data collected against a before, after, control, impact
design in the critically-endangered box-gum grassy woodlands of eastern
Australia. We provide evidence that cultural burning promoted the
establishment of disturbance-sensitive native leguminous plants and
graminoids, with positive responses pronounced in high-condition sites.
However, exotic plants characterized burning responses where floristic
condition was initially low. Our findings demonstrate the marked influence
of starting conditions on vegetation responses after burning, which are
likely a product of past disturbance. Taken together, the results
highlight the potential complexities of re-introducing fire into
long-unburnt landscapes that have been highly modified by a long history
of western agricultural management. Therefore, post-burning interventions
in low-floristic condition sites will be critical to mitigate
weed-invasion and to promote native plants. Our work demonstrates the
value of forming partnerships which unite Indigenous knowledge, and
western science and management, to generate cross-cultural positive
outcomes and benefits. These include the generation of a new body of
ecological evidence to support the re-emergence of cultural burning in
south-eastern Australia.