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I suggest that letter writers put some
thought into how they are going to phrase their criticisms.
Heaths typically have changes of biodiversity composition as they
age following a fire. Some species are entirely absent straight
after or just before a fire, depending on the age class. Other
species may remain present but in greatly varying proportions
between burns.
Therefore, managment plans usually aim to ensure different age
classes of heath through planned rotations of burns.
Speaking from personal experience, it is seems to be getting more
and more difficult to find safe windows for heath management
burns. Even when you do get a safe burn done, if the fire is cool
enough, the remnant standing stems might become extremely dry and
combustible, acting as fuel for any following wildfires.
I suggest that one of the consequences of changes to temperature
and rainfall patterns consequent to global warming will be that
systems that have evolved under the prior climate regime will come
under increased pressure either from too much fire too frequently,
or not enough fire at all with management caught in the middle.
These issues are made much more intractible if the heath is
adjacent to the built environment.
One counterproductive consequence of putting pressure on managers
to burn less might well be counterproductive to early-classes of
heath fire responding species.
All that said, I suggest that one of the management issues with
shrinking budgets is having on hand sufficient firefighting staff
and machines to minimise any management burns from getting out of
hand.
If I were writing, I would focus on that particular criticism.
Con
On 13/03/2014 4:19 PM, Lia Battisson wrote:
Of course that doesn’t mean that the birds will survive
long term, in their greatly reduced patch of habitat! It IS
in fact, ‘all bad news’! I haven’t written my letter yet,
but I will!
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2014 7:32 PM
Subject: [canberrabirds] Ben Boyd - news
those of us who spent the weekend at Ben Boyd were
horrified by the extent of a controlled burn in the
heath just last week - and a ranger confirmed the fire
had got away from them. There is now an ABC news story
about this "controlled" burn which mentions the extent
of the devastation of the habitat of the ground parrots,
southern emu wrens and other heathland birds. It also
mentions the "group of birdwatchers" but doesn't say we
expressed our concerns re the extent of the fire.
see
sandra h
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