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Fire Management in Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area

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Fire Management in Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area RESEARCH REPORT Fire management in Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area: Ecosystem restoration using Indigenous-style fire regimes? By Jon B. Marsden-Smedley and Jamie B. Kirkpatrick This paper is based on research by Jon Marsden- Summary In many natural areas, changes in fire regimes since European settlement have Smedley (Fire Management Section, Parks resulted in adverse impacts on elements of biological diversity that survived millennia of and Wildlife Service, Department of Primary land management by Indigenous people. Some of the rainforest and alpine elements that depend on south-west Tasmania’s World Heritage Area have been in decline since Euro- Industries, Water and Environment, GPO pean settlement of Tasmania due to an increase in the incidence of landscape-scale fires Box 44a, Hobart, Tas. 7001, Australia. Email: in the period 1850–1940. Some of the buttongrass moorland elements that also depend on [email protected]) carried out in collabo- the region are in decline or impending decline because of a decreased incidence and/or ration with Jamie B. Kirkpatrick (School of size of burns since 1940. Will an Indigenous-style fire regime serve the interests of bio- Geography and Environmental Studies, Univer- logical diversity? We examine this question in the context of the fire ecology and fire history of south-west Tasmania. From this assessment we argue that a return to Indigenous- sity of Tasmania, Hobart, Tas. 7001, Australia). style burning, modified to address contemporary issues such as the prevention of unplanned ignition, suppression of wildfires and burning to favour rare and threatened species may help to reverse trends towards ecosystem degradation in this region. Key words south-west Tasmania, fire management, Indigenous burning, World Heritage Area. Introduction Marsden-Smedley 1993b; Arkell 1995; The fire ecology of Greenslade 1997; Driessen 1999). Both south-west Tasmania his paper refers to the approximately changes appear to be reducing elements of T1.2 million ha of south-west Tasmania’s south-west Tasmania’s biological diversity, The major terrestrial vegetation types in World Heritage Area included in South- with the possibility of major alterations to south-west Tasmania are alpine vegetation, west National Park and Franklin–Gordon ecological processes and biological pattern- temperate rainforest, eucalypt forest, tea- Wild Rivers National Park, along with and ing (Kirkpatrick 1994). In this paper we tree scrub and buttongrass moorland. Tea- the part of the South-west Conservation argue that such existing damage and the tra- tree scrub is normally dominated by tall Area that is adjacent to the King River and Acacia, Banksia, Leptospermum and/or jectory towards decline warrant the appli- Cape Sorell. A vegetation map of the Melaleuca while buttongrass moorland is cation of ecological restoration-style region has been published by Kirkpatrick normally co-dominated by sedges and low management to return these ecosystems to and Dickinson (1984b) and its fire history heaths,in particular the hummock forming a pre-existing, more desirable state. has been reviewed by Marsden-Smedley Buttongrass (Gymnoschoenus sphaero- An intuitively attractive means of reha- (1998a). cephalus; Kirkpatrick 1991; Reid et al. bilitating the impacts of inappropriate fire Marked changes have occurred in the 1999). Alpine vegetation can be adjacent regimes on biodiversity is a restoration of fire regime of south-west Tasmania since to any of these lowland vegetation types European settlement. These changes have the style of fire regime that prevailed (Kirkpatrick 1983, 1984; Kirkpatrick & resulted in the spread of fire into fire- when Indigenous Tasmanians managed the Brown 1987). sensitive temperate rainforest and alpine landscape. In this paper we examine the These vegetation types characteristi- vegetation (Kirkpatrick & Dickinson 1984a; appropriateness of this response in terms cally occur in close juxtaposition, with Bowman & Brown 1986; Brown 1988; of a number of criteria and contrast the their distributions being related to site pro- Cullen & Kirkpatrick 1988). Conversely, a fire management regime that emerges ductivity and its influence on the proba- trend is also evident towards a reduction in from this analysis with six other potential bility of fire (Jackson 1968; Bowman & the fire frequency in many buttongrass fire management regimes. Before engaging Jackson 1981). A common lowland moorlands which are dependent on shorter in these analyses we provide a review of sequence from less productive and/or fire frequencies to maintain plant and the ecology and fire history of south-west more flammable to more productive animal diversity (Brown & Wilson 1984; Tasmania as necessary background. and/or less flammable sites is: buttongrass ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION VOL 1 NO 3 DECEMBER 2000 195 RESEARCH REPORT moorland — tea-tree scrub — eucalypt 50 years without fire (e.g. see Brown & should also result in a lowering of the forest — rainforest (Jackson 1968). Podger 1982; Jarman et al.1988a; Marsden- probability of fire in forest and alpine Below the alpine zone there are few Smedley 1990, 1998b), but by the time vegetation. The literature (e.g. Brown & places that could not support any of rain- these moorlands are 100–150 years of age Podger 1982; Jarman et al. 1988a, 1988b; forest, tea-tree scrub or buttongrass moor- many appear to be undergoing succession Marsden-Smedley 1990, 1998b) suggests land, all of which can occur in the full into tea-tree scrub (J. B. Marsden-Smedley, that this period could vary from less than range of sites from highly waterlogged to unpubl.data).More frequent fires are there- 50 to more than 150 years, the lower limit well drained as well as on the full range of fore needed to maintain buttongrass moor- relating to buttongrass moorland on fertile the region’s geological types. Eucalypt lands and to maintain habitat for some soils and the latter to steep, high altitude forest tends not to occur in the most animal species. For example, Orange- and/or sites underlain by quartzitic rocks. poorly drained sites. This implies that, bellied Parrots (Neophema chrysogaster) given the capacity for rainforest to expand require fire frequencies of 3 to 12 years The fire history of and exclude other vegetation groups in between fires (Brown & Wilson 1984; south-west Tasmania the prolonged absence of fire or other Marsden-Smedley 1993b) while small major exogenous disturbance, almost all of patchy fires about every 20 years seem to Pre-human fire history non-alpine south-west Tasmania could con- maintain small mammal and invertebrate ceivably be covered with rainforest, and a species diversity (Arkell 1995; Greenslade The time period over which humans have large proportion of the alpine vegetation 1997; Driessen 1999). occupied south-west Tasmania is currently of the region could be dominated by the subject of some conjecture. Anthropo- logical evidence suggests a minimum native gymnosperms and Deciduous Key role of buttongrass occupation age of about 35 000 years (see Beech (Nothofagus gunnii). moorland in landscape-scale fire Kee et al. 1993) but in a recent review Most rainforest and alpine shrub and dynamics tree species will regenerate after fire, with based on palaeoecological data, Jackson several fires at relatively high frequency The most critical ignitions are those that (1999) proposed that an occupation age of being necessary for their total local elimi- occur when any or all of tea-tree scrub 70 000 years is more probable. Prior to nation. However, the re-establishment of (particularly its fibrous peat layer), euca- 70 000 years ago, during interglacial Deciduous Beech and native gymno- lypt forest, alpine and rainforest areas are periods the proportion of rainforest taxa sperms in burned areas is normally an dry enough to burn under the prevailing in the pollen record is much higher that is extremely slow process because they are weather conditions. During most of the currently the situation (see Jackson 1999). killed by fire, have no persistent seed year,however,fuel moistures in south-west Dominance by rainforest taxa would be bank, and have very limited dispersal Tasmania are such that only buttongrass expected in south-west Tasmania under a ranges (Kirkpatrick & Dickinson 1984a). moorlands are dry enough to burn, and regime where lightning was the only Conversely, under prolonged absence of fires are therefore limited in their duration significant cause of fires. In the current fire in lowland sites, Eucalyptus can be by the size of the buttongrass patch in interglacial, the incidence of lightning eliminated from an area if the interval which ignition took place. The probability resulting in medium- to large-scale fires is between fires exceeds their lifespans. This of fire transgressing the boundary be- extremely low with lightning usually being is due to Eucalyptus having no persistent tween buttongrass moorland and tea-tree associated with rainfall, and lightning fires seed bank, poor dispersal mechanisms and scrub increases with increasing button- covering very small areas (Parks and its requirement for open regeneration grass moorland fuel. Fires in old button- Wildlife Service, unpubl. data; see also niches which tend not to occur in the grass moorlands burn with high rates of Marsden-Smedley 1998b). absence of fire. The seed bank and disper- spread and intensities, tend to burn Indigenous fire regimes sal characteristics of most buttongrass throughout the diurnal cycle and fre- moorland taxa are also poorly known. quently burn into scrub vegetation types Direct observational evidence of Indige- However, canopy closure by overstorey where there is a high potential for peat nous fire regimes in the study area, tree and heath species will probably result fires (see Marsden-Smedley 1993a, 1998b; although necessarily limited, leaves little in the elimination of many species. There Marsden-Smedley & Catchpole 1995a, doubt that Indigenous people burned but- seems little doubt that the extensive areas 1995b, in press; Marsden-Smedley et al. tongrass moorlands (Kelly 1816; Goodwin of eucalypt forest, tea-tree scrub and 1998, 2000, in press).
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