UTAS asked to apologise for bushfire research paper error

The University of Tasmania has been asked to apologise for a now retracted scientific paper linking bushfires with forestry, as new data reveals the country’s bushfire outlook for the summer. SEE TASMANIA’S SUMMER BUSHFIRE FORECAST>>

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THE UNIVERSITY of Tasmania has been asked to apologise for a now retracted scientific paper linking bushfires with forestry, as new data reveals the country’s bushfire outlook for the summer.

The Institute of Foresters of Australia called for the apology when research by UTAS academics Suyanti Winto-Lewin, Jennifer Sanger and James Kirkpatrick was retracted on August 27.

Errors included incorrectly categorising forest types and geographical mapping issues.

The Greens were recently accused of using the paper’s link between bushfires and logging to levy attacks against the forestry industry.

IFA President Bob Gordon said he questioned the university’s review processes.

“What I marvel at, is it took two volunteer independent scientists and academics to pick up these errors through publicly available data and then contact the editors of this journal to highlight the substantial issues in methodology,” Mr Gordon said.

A UTAS spokesman said a fellow researcher had contacted the authors with concerns after checking the data.

“The authors re-examined their work, seeking input from an independent colleague with relevant expertise and, on confirming errors in their data that impacted their findings, they withdrew the paper and apologised,” he said.

“This was the right thing to do.”

He said the authors were correcting their errors.

The controversy follows a summer of devastating bushfires, but wetter weather is predicted to reduce this season’s risk.

The Australian Seasonal Bushfire Outlook, which last year reported significant danger for East Australia and smaller south and west zones, has said wetter east Australia conditions through Spring will quell east Australia’s and Tasmania’s short term fire risk.

But the rain could cause fast running grassland and cropping area fires in summer.

Only Queensland’s Gympie area and small zones in northern WA have been classified as possessing “above average fire potential” with the rest of the nation facing “normal fire potential”.

Last year’s Australian Seasonal Bushfire Outlook forecast above-average fire risk in the lead-up to what transpired to be a catastrophic national 2019/20 bushfire season. Source: BUSHFIRE & NATURAL HAZARDS CRC.

The 2020 Australian Seasonal Bushfire Outlook forecast shows the majority of Australia faces a “normal fire potential” heading into 2021, with only the Gympie region likely to face a similar fire season to last year. Source: BUSHFIRE & NATURAL HAZARDS CRC.