canberrabirds

Control burn Bruce Ridge

To: "martin butterfield" <>, "COG List" <>
Subject: Control burn Bruce Ridge
From: "Peter Ormay" <>
Date: Mon, 17 May 2010 18:25:07 +1000
That was a hazard reduction burn carried out about 2months ago
 
Around 1984 a bushfire roared along both sides of Belconnen Way including Bruce Ridge fanned by a hot westerly. It burnt one car parked on Dryandra St and a few hedges but no houses were lost. However the conditions weren't as bad as during the January 2003 fire that burnt into Duffy.  Belconnen Way is regarded as a dangerous fire corridor (when a hot westerly is blowing) by the ACT bushfire authorities and I wouldn't like to be living in that part of O'Connor exposed to it with a wildfire coming down Belconnen Way under similar conditions to the 03 fire without considerable hazard reduction burns having been carried out on the north side of Black Mountain and Bruce Ridge.
 
I took part in over 30 postfire vegetation surveys after the 03 fire at sites that had been surveyed 5 to 30 years before. Every species of plant that was reported before the fire at those sites was regenerating after the fire plus some that weren't reported in the prefire survey.  I think the 03 fire was more destructive on widlife habitat than any hazard reduction burn I've seen.
 
I also took part in postfire small mammal and pitfall trapping at sites that were surveyed before the 03 fire and all the small mammals and lizard species that were recorded at those sites before the fire were there after the fire.
 
I think it's better to have hazard reduction burns every 3 to 15 years (with some sites protected as needed according to appropriate studies for certain animal species) than have a devastating fire at 50 to 100 year intervals. 
Peter 
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