Australia's current wildfire crisis linked to colonial land-use change.

Colonial land-use change in southeastern Australia increased eucalypt forest cover fourfold and created more flammable landscapes, intensifying wildfire risk beyond climate change effects.

• Why it matters: Understanding historical land-use impacts is crucial because they have significantly altered vegetation and fuel dynamics, contributing to the current wildfire crisis, which climate change alone cannot explain.
• What they did: The study reconstructed 1,000 years of vegetation and fire history using ecological data, revealing how colonial disruption shifted fire regimes and vegetation structure prior to recent warming.
• The result: Findings show that colonial land-use legacies amplified wildfire vulnerability, highlighting the importance of integrating Indigenous fire management practices to restore resilience and reduce future wildfire risk.