Is Fire Good for Nature?

Lots of Australian flora has evolved in partnership with natural fire. A number of plants can only germinate when their seeds have been burnt.

Aboriginal people did a lot of "controlled" burning, to aid in hunting and suchlike. Whether this was "good" for the place, or whether over 50,000 or so years they have simply killed all the plants that could not adapt is a possible moot point.

Part of the problem with the current terrible fires is simply drought - we are having a once in 100 or 200 year drought at present - (either that or global warming has got us) - and the incursion into bushland of housing developments. Bush + severe drought + houses = severe property loss and some loss of life in extreme fire events - and Canberra is especially blessed with lots of surrounding bush.

There is some controlled burning - but there is a debate here as well - perhaps not so much about burning the bush as about letting natural fires burn more - although there are lots of complaints about fires from farmers who live adjacent to national parks - which are no longer staffed adequately to manage them properly.

Not sure if this is on topic?

It is absolutely on topic, and this 'thread' has also been cross-posted to the Wilderness forum. That is certainly a double whammy, drought + good dry underbrush. And that was part of the problem, or the entire problem perhaps, here in the states last summer. And, of course, this is used as arguments for controlled burning: to do away with the fuel source (dry brush and dead wood) which acts as such a powerful, explosive agent, and which might lead to uncontrollable and disastrous consequences later, for man, beast, and flora.

Rain forests are necessary to maintain life on earth. Droughts are a natural occurance of nature. Man has many options in trying to ease the effects of droughts, but many are too poor to do anything, and they suffer the consequences. The world population continues to grow at an alarming rate. Where does this all end? c.i.

This is the information by the Commonwealth of Austrilia

The Bushfire Thread

Sumac Being from Oregon, responsible forest management is a hot topic. Environmentalist have crippled the timber industry in the name of wildlife. Last years devasting forest fires that claimed thousands of acres of timber and wildlife habitat have brought this topic to the front pages again.

Despite seemingly reasonable plans to cut timber, clear slash piles and have controlled burns to limit the piles of fallen needles, branches and cones that fuel fires well even when wet, these efforts fail.

Unfortunately, I feel that something tragic must happen until Oregon embraces forest managment.

There must be a compromise.

Likely to the surprise of few, I'm interested in Forest Management. Timber is a RENEWABLE RESOURCE, fer chrissake, and it doesn't do much good if it's not renewed. Some will see only the removal of a 2-or-3 century-old tree. Others see the trees that will fill the spot once occupied by the parent tree. We owe those new trees to our children's children's children. That is what Forest Mangement is about. Rolling firestorms are what Forest Mismanagement is about. Wild Forest benefits from selective pruning and controlled burns. Irresponsible human development ... suburban sprawl, exacerbates the problem. It is quite simple, and relatively effective, to remove excess fuel and to avoid building tight to the brush line. Some people are idiots.



timber

As far as the Australian fires go, the only problem is when they occur near people. The speed of regeneration of plants after fires in this country has to be seen to be believed. For the flora, fire is a normal and natural part of the environment.

Wilso, I'm sure it's also true in Australia, but we learned while in New Zealand that plants grow ten times as fast in their country compared to the US. We saw a California redwood tree at the botanical garden in Christchurch, and it's growth according to our guide has grown ten times faster in that location than it would have in California. It was huge! c.i.

It's the wildlife that I fret about in bushfires!

Hi sumac.

I often hear{in AUS} that a bushfire has been deliberately lit....I'm curious how this is established, for ex, if a nutter where to throw a solitary match on a hot day, how would anyone ever know it was set by man?

I've always wondered that myself.

Fire brigaeds, pplice forces, insurance companies are doing a lot in research, investigations and studies about this.

Not only in Austrlia, but elsewhere, sometimes people wonder for years - e.g. in their prison cell - how police got it that they only through a match in their house.

Many local fire departments have investigators that look into possible arson.

Ok Walter, but my specific curiosity is with bushfires.
With a house we have a small area to examine relative to a bush, now obvioulsy the fire-brigade can determine an approx area of ignition, but how do they determine that and specifically, how can they find the ashes of a match amongst all the other ash?

Ask onr of the specialists - they shurely know, where they fire started!