With the trauma of last fire season still fresh and communities, landscapes and wildlife still recovering, it is hard to fathom that the next fire season has already begun. And with COVID-19 to consider, it's even harder to guess what kind of fire season lies ahead.
— a measure of soil moisture that rates from 0-200 the estimated number of millimetres of rain required to soak the ground — it also encourages the growth of grasses.
Bowman points to the NSW Blue Mountains, which had some of that state's most severe blazes, as an area to watch again this year. The pressure on the firefighting community makes the idea of volunteering for a local firefighting unit seem like a logical next step and Mullins says big bushfire emergencies typically work well as a drawcard for recruitment.
For others, there is a disconnect between the instant satisfaction of bushfire fighting beside "the long-term, day in, day out commitment", says Davies. "If you see people in uniforms and trucks and aircraft it can engender the belief that society has created a sufficiently powerful firefighting force and you don't need to do anything, just sit back and watch the show," he says, noting that the severity of the 2019-2020 fire season presented dilemmas that simply could not be solved, like running out of water.
"We have to develop situational awareness, our own capacities and resources and our own community resilience," he says, arguing everyone needs to have "a backpack, packed at the door, ready to disrupt all of your routines".
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