12/12/2024
OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND! Where have all the animals gone?
Sheepwash North Prescribed Burn 10-14 November 2024. Mount Lindesay National Park.
We have been actively following this burn and its aftermath, which from an ecological aspect is not pretty to say the least.
What we have observed is 70-90% crown-scorch, heavy impact to Banksia woodlands, many habitat trees: Jarrah, Wandoo, Yate, Banksia and She-oak not being able to withstand the impact of this burn and meeting their end. In one location we counted 5 of these in a small area of 100 square meters.
The total area of Sheepwash North is 7797ha which is divided into 3 cells of which cell 2, the northern section was ignited on the 10th of November with subsequent ignitions on the following days.
The Prescribed Fire Plan (PFP) tells us that prelimenary work in mitigation impact to threatened and vulnerable fauna species should have included raking around habitat trees and marking them on a map.
It also tells us that the area is a cockatoo breeding area, which we can vouch for as we have seen and heard many in this block over the last number of years. It is habitat for the Western Brush Wallaby and most likely the Ringtail Possum. A Woylie has been sighted in 2009 in this block and it is possible that chuditch are present. I could go on for there is a whole list in the Prescribed fire plan.
Sheepwash block consists of a varied landscape, with Jarrah/ Marri bushland, Wandoo woodland (furthest south occurrence), extensive Banksia woodlands as well as wetlands, heath-lands and creeks with their adjoining riparian zones.
The Prescribed Fire Plan states:
“The Objectives
· To protect neighbouring properties and timber plantations from bushfire
· To protect and maintain biodiversity values (by reducing the risk of severe bushfires) and creating a mosaic of fire intensities to support ecological processes.”
“Success Criteria
· A minimum of 70% of the burn area is burnt by prescribed fire.
· No more than 10% of mature forest canopy to be defoliated and
· Crown scorch in dominant and co-dominant trees within standard fuels not to exceed 40%”
In the preparation for this prescribed burn a small overgrown track was enlarged by bulldozing a wide strip (a highway), with taking in its path any trees, which were in the way, leaving a pile of ancient trees every 100 meters along its length. Other trees, large and small, were pushed over during the burn and pushed away from the boundary.
And we wonder how many animals succumbed in this burn, the small marsupials, threatened and common, the birds with their nestlings, the reptiles and amphibians, not to speak of all the insects, the micro fauna and other life forms sustaining the health of country. Most of them gone!
And like people not wanting to return to an area of massacre, there is the feeling that this is the same for the other beings we share life and country with, for these post burn sites are areas of little sound: few birds, and few other animals.
Foxes, cats and pigs have a free run and prey on any wildlife left. We see eagles and other birds of prey scouring the land looking for that quenda or small animal who now does not have anywhere to hide.
And this bare land is going into summer, baking in the summer sun and exacerbating the heating of our planet and drying our local climate.
And is this practice effective, we ask: from our observations there is more leaflitter on the ground in a couple of months with all the scorched leaves fallen down plus all the dead sticks of the undergrowth, which are still making up the “fuel” for the next illogical prescribed burn.
Fire has its place in the Australian landscape, but burning all our conservation estate, including National Parks and Nature Reserves in an industrial manner, on a rotation of 4-12 years gives little future for our unique flora and fauna.
