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Nature's Response to the Black Saturday Bushfires, February 2009

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Nature's Response to the Black Saturday Bushfires, February 2009 Under fire – nature’s response to the Black Saturday bushfires, February 2009 Black Saturday Victoria 2009 – Natural values fire recovery program Stephen Platt and Stephen Smith Under fire – nature’s response to the Black Saturday bushfires, February 2009 This document summarises the results of projects commissioned under the program ‘Rebuilding Together’ funded by the Victorian and Commonwealth governments Statewide Bushfire Recovery Plan, launched October 2009. Published by the Victorian Government Department of Environment and Primary Industries, August 2013. © The State of Victoria Department of Environment and Primary Industries 2013. This publication is copyright. No part may be reproduced by any person except in accordance with the provision of the Copyright Act 1968. Authorised by the Victorian Government, 8 Nicholson St, East Melbourne. Print managed by Finsbury Green. Printed on recycled paper. ISBN 978-1-74287-904-8 (Print) ISBN 978-1-74287-905-5 (pdf) For more information contact the DEPI Customer Service Centre 136 186. Disclaimer: This publication may be of assistance to you but the State of Victoria and its employees do not guarantee that the publication is without flaw of any kind or is wholly appropriate for your particular purposes and therefore disclaims all liability for any error, loss or other consequence which may arise from you relying on any information in this publication. Accessibility: if you would like to receive this publication in an accessible format, such as large print or audio, please telephone 136 186, 1800 122 969 (TTY), or email [email protected] Citation: Platt, S.J. and Smith, S. (2013) Under fire – nature’s response to the Black Saturday bushfires: Black Saturday Victoria 2009. Natural values fire recovery program. Department of Environment and Primary Industries, East Melbourne, Victoria. Photographs remain copyright of the photographers as indicated in the text. Front cover photo: Post fire regeneration at Steels Creek, November 2010 (Stephen Platt). Contents Acknowledgements ii The event 1 Natural values at risk – the fire aftermath 2 The response 4 Short-term response 4 Longer-term response 10 Threatened species – mammals 10 Threatened species – birds 18 Threatened species – reptiles and amphibians 20 Threatened species – fish and aquatic invertebrates 24 Threatened species – plants 29 Pest plant and animal management 41 People and natural values recovery 46 Recovery so far – 2012 50 Appendices 53 Appendix 1 – List of natural values recovery reports 53 Appendix 2 – National and State listed species within 2009 bushfire areas 56 i Acknowledgements This project summarises reports of the program ‘Rebuilding Together’ funded by the Victorian and Commonwealth governments’ Statewide Bushfire Recovery Plan, launched October 2009. Special thanks go to all the authors of individual reports (listed in Appendix 1), whose work underpins this document. We also wish to thank all those volunteers and workers whose enthusiasm and effort assisted with delivery of the program outcomes. We acknowledge and thank the many people and agencies who contributed to the recovery of natural values on fire affected private land through the Australian Government’s concurrent Caring for our Country bushfire recovery program. Samantha Strong contributed to early drafts of this report. Andrew Blackett prepared species distribution maps. Photographers are acknowledged in figure credits. In 2013, the former Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) and Department of Primary Industries (DPI) became the Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI). To avoid confusion, this report retains the names of the former departments where it refers to arrangements at the time the projects were conducted. This report documents natural values projects initiated in response to the 2009 Victorian bushfires. It should not be interpreted as representing government policy. ii The event On 7 February 2009, following a prolonged and severe heatwave, 14 major bushfires burnt 430,000 hectares of Victoria. This dramatic event occurred at the end of a decade-long drought that had seen very large fires occur in 2003 and 2006. Tragically, 173 lives were lost and many other people were affected by what had occurred. There was also great concern for the effect of the fires on natural bushland and its plants and animals. This is an account of the natural environment’s response to the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. It recalls the projects and people who assisted in the recovery of natural values on public land and summarises what was learnt about natural values recovery. Figure 1. Post-fire landscape at Robertson Gully, south of Marysville, 27 March 2009 (Stephen Platt). 1 Natural values at risk – the fire aftermath Key points • On 7 February 2009, 14 bushfires burn 430,000 hectares of Victoria. • Over two thirds of the area burnt (69%) is public land and 25% of this is conservation reserves. • 27 national and 19 state-listed, threatened species are potentially affected. • Around half of the Wet Forest Ecological Vegetation Class of the Highlands – Northern Fall Bioregion, which contains prime Leadbeater’s Possum habitat and nationally significant rainforest stands, is burnt. • Extensive areas of vegetation are burnt below their Tolerable Fire Interval posing a potential risk to plant species that have not yet reached reproductive maturity. Fire is a natural event in most of the wildlife habitats of south-eastern Australia, and most species are adapted to survive fire. However, the burnt area (Figure 2) contained the habitat of species considered ‘at risk’ from fire, including 27 nationally-listed and 19 state-listed threatened plant and animal species (Appendix 1) and many other species of concern. Core habitat of iconic and endangered species such as Leadbeater’s Possum (Victoria’s state emblem, Figure 3), Barred Galaxias fish and the Spotted Tree Frog was encompassed within the fire area. It was feared that fire sensitive and nationally significant ecological communities such as rainforest, alpine wetlands and tall wet forests, had been burnt. Figure 2. Map of major areas burnt on Black Saturday, 7 February 2009. 2 Extensive areas of vegetation had been burnt below the Tolerable Fire Interval for the vegetation type, indicating a potential risk to some fire sensitive plant species (Figure 4). Immediately following the fire people were asking: Given that the bush is so badly burnt, would it ever recover? Have Leadbeater’s Possum, Barred Galaxias and other threatened species survived? Would predators, such as foxes and cats, kill the surviving wildlife? Will regenerating threatened plants be eaten by introduced deer and goats? Will weeds be promoted by the fire and change wildlife habitats forever? Figure 3. Map of fire area in relation to Leadbeater’s Possum records. When will well-known and loved species, such as lyrebirds, return? BurntBelowMinTFI-Murrindindi-rev.pdf 1 13/08/13 12:04 PM The answers were unknown. Burnt Area Above and Below Minimum Tolerable Fire Interval: Kilmore East - Murrindindi Fire area 25-Feb-2009 Indicates fire area with y w G no native vegetation, F ou e l bu or without previous m rn u V fire history H a ll ey H w y Burnt above min TFI Broadford Yea y Burnt below min TFI Hw ley Val urn ulb Go Taggerty Flowerdale M Rubicon e l b a H w y y w H N h a o d rt n h o e rn ro a H M w y Whittlesea Marysville Kinglake Cambarville Yarra Glen Healesville Reefton Metropolitan Ring Rd 1:420,413 0 2 4 8 12 16 Warburton Hwy km Figure 4. Map of areas burnt above and below Tolerable Fire Interval in the Kilmore East – Murrindindi fire area. 3 The response Short-term response Urgent ecological recovery activities • Temporary relocation of native fish species (Barred Galaxias, Macquarie Perch) to safe refuges • Control of predators at key sites (e.g. foxes and cats at Wilsons Promontory, foxes at Kinglake) • Assessment of threatened species to determine their specific needs (e.g. endangered Leadbeater’s Possum at Lake Mountain and the endangered plant Shiny Nematolepis in the O’Shannassy Catchment) • Replacement of protective fencing around threatened plants to exclude browsing and grazing animals such as rabbits, deer, goats and kangaroos • Replacement of nest boxes where they are part of a monitoring or research program (e.g. Leadbeater’s Possum at Lake Mountain, Brush- tailed Phascogale at Kinglake) • Supporting the welfare of fire-affected wildlife. Protecting natural values during the fire emergency During the fire, Natural Values Officers in Incident Management Teams provided advice on natural values at risk within the path of the fire and options for protecting them. For example, at one point it was feared that the critical Yellingbo population of Helmeted Honeyeater, Victoria’s bird emblem, would be affected and discussions were held about whether to evacuate the birds. Fortunately, the fire did not get to this location. These officers also provided advice on how to avoid unnecessary damage to values during fire fighting that could result from back burning, track construction, machinery and chemical use. In the immediate aftermath Immediately following the fires, specialist teams assessed the natural values that might have been affected and potential risks to species and their habitat. Their reports assisted with the early identification of urgent recovery actions and helped identify issues that required immediate action. Of particular concern was the potential that threatened populations of certain mammals would lack places to hide from predators, including the introduced Red Fox and feral cat. Also of concern was the risk that rainfall following the fires would wash sediments and ash into streams containing surviving populations of threatened fish, thereby starving them of oxygen. Thus, in the immediate days after the fire: • A team of fish biologists was dispatched to search for, and bring into short- term protection in an aquarium, surviving threatened fish (Barred Galaxias and Macquarie Perch) • Fox and cat control was undertaken at strategic locations to protect threatened mammal populations such as Southern Brown Bandicoot and New Holland Mouse.
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