When the dry times come again, plants and grasses dry out and become potential fuel for massive desert fires.
Fire authorities are warning up to 80% of the Northern Territory could burn this fire season.
These areas are managed by Indigenous groups - and fire is a vital part of management.
Without Indigenous rangers expertly managing the deserts through landscape-scale fire management, these protected lands would be at risk of decline.
In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in Indigenous fire management - especially after the devastation of the Black Summer fires of 2019-2020.
The goal is to shift from wrong-way fire - where fuel builds up until large, damaging bushfires ignite - to right-way fire, culturally informed fire regimes led by Traditional Owners.
These fires are done regularly, with small fires of varying intensity producing a fine-scale mosaic of vegetation at different stages of recovery and maintaining long-unburned vegetation as safe harbours for wildlife and plants.
I’ve been out doing this over the years with my uncles who were park rangers.
They taught me how to do it on our own traditional lands,
It really does make a difference and the fires are very manageable
Should be happening all over the country.
