Burn offs can often increase fuel. Knocking down or burning established forests will result in grass and numerous saplings shooting up in place of the limited

Burn offs can often increase fuel. Knocking down or burning established forests will result in grass and numerous saplings shooting up in place of the limited plant life that could survive under the low light of the canopy. So it really depends on the type of forests/bushland. There's also been a lot of talk about opposition from left-ist parties to backburning and clear-felling, when their real policies are actually based on what the science recommends, which is a lot more complicated than either do or do not backburn. (I doubt that allowing unchecked clear-felling is a good strategy either - grass fires can rip through paddocks as they do forests.)