Chris,
Generally I am in agreement with the opinions you have expressed but have a
few queries running in my head.
What about hot burns to manage these situations:-
1 wet sclerophyl being invaded by rainforests
2 truffle production for species like Northern Bettong?
Perhaps the former on a two hundred year cycle and the latter at about 7 to
10.
Also not sure about never burning the rainforest. I have noticed two things
which might be relevant here. Firstly the recruitment of emergent trees is
not keeping up with their death through old age. The spread of vine filled
areas where there have been tree falls indicates that gaps in the forest are
not always closed by little seedlings and saplings that have been hanging
around for their chance to shoot for the sky. Secondly charcoal is not an
uncommon thing to find in the rainforest.
It has been suggested to me that Aboriginal burning of fallen tree heads and
the associated vine tangle helped to keep the forest open. This is better
for the movement of people.
I do not have the answers but lots of questions. The human life span is a
short time scale and that of a research project is even shorter. The one
thing that is sure is that we need to maximise the size of our reserves,
both individually and collectively.
Regards,
Alan
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