The aptly-named Deb Sparkes is the coordinator for the Centre of Excellence for Prescribed Burning and said the amount of time available for burning is getting smaller.
"With climate change, what we're seeing is that the summer season is getting longer so it's staying too dry for too long for [prescribed burning authorities] to undertake their prescribed burns," Ms Sparkes said.
"That little window between the bush fire season is shortening so we're either going to lose the window altogether, especially if winters stay dry, or we're going to have to shift our thinking to doing prescribed burning in winter."
...Ms Sparkes said winter burning can present other issues.
"We have the shorter days in winter, so therefore they may not have that opportunity to burn as much land as they wanted during the daylight hours before the fire behaviour dies down," she said.
"Also, having crews out mopping up in the dark is a safety risk to our crews."
FFA Victoria's Darrin McKenzie said that in his state the shortening burn window was limiting their ability to implement their burns, as well as their ability to manage the impacts on things like community events.
