Fire Resources
Effects of logging on fire regimes in moist forests
David B. Lindenmayer 1 , Malcolm L. Hunter 2 , Philip J. Burton 3 , & Philip Gibbons 1
1 Fenner School of the Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2000, Australia 2 Department of Wildlife Ecology, University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA 3 Canadian Forest Service and University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, BC, V2N 4Z9, Canada
Does logging affect the fire proneness of forests? This question often arises after major wildfires, but data suggests that answers differ substantially among different types of forest. Logging can alter key attributes of forests by changing micro-climates, stand structure and species composition, fuel characteristics, the prevalence of ignition points, and patterns of landscape cover. These changes may make some kinds of forests more prone to increased probability of ignition and increased fire severity. Such forests include tropical rain-forests where fire was previously extremely rare or absent and other moist forests where natural fire regimes tend toward low frequency, stand-replacing events. Relationships between logging and fire regimes are contingent on forest practices, the kind of forest under consideration, and the natural fire regime characteristic of that forest. Such relationships will influence both the threat of fire to human life and infrastructure and biodiversity conservation. We therefore argue that conservation scientists must engage in debates about fire and logging to provide an environmental context to guide considered actions. Read More
Forest logging creates fire traps: academic
4/03/2010 - Decades of industrial logging in Australia's wet forests have made them more fire prone, raising urgent fire management issues, according to an ANU academic. - Martyn Pearce, ANU Media
Professor David Lindenmayer of the Fenner School of Environment and Society challenges current fire protection practices in the March issue of Australasian Science magazine.
Victorian 2009 Bush Fire Report
Commissioned by the Victorian National Parks Association, Australian Conservation Foundation and The Wilderness Society, this report analyses the driving influences of the February 7 Victorian bushfires and how they passed through and affected different areas.
Bushfire Truths:
43% state forest
29% private land
5% plantations
23% National Parks
Seminar on catastropic bushfire
This blog summarises the seminar.
Post-Wildfire Logging hinders regeneration and increases fire risk
Recent increases in wildfire activity in the United States have intensified controversies surrounding the management of public forests after large fires (1). The view that post-fire (salvage) logging diminishes fire risk via fuel reduction and that forests will not adequately regenerate without intervention, including logging and planting, is widely held and commonly cited (2). An alternate view maintains that post-fire logging is detrimental to long-term forest development, wildlife habitat, and other ecosystem functions (1). Scientific data directly informing this debate is lacking.
Green Carbon and Bushfire debate - Prof Brendan Mackey and Prof Rod Keenan
New research shows that native forests hold much greater stores of carbon than was previously realised. Environmentalists have seized on this science to call for more protection from logging. But foresters conclude the opposite - what they say is needed, is active forest management, harvesting trees for timber and protecting against fire. The National Interest will canvass both perspectives with Professors Brendan Mackey and Rod Keenan.
Links between bushfire and logging coupes
The following maps show where the fires burnt where the regenerating logging coupes were.
Salvage Logging in the Mountain Ash Eucalypt Forests
Salvage Logging on the Black Range
D.B. LINDENMAYER AND K. OUGH
Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2000, Australia,
email davidl@cres.anu.edu.au
Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Sustainability and Environment, 123 Brown Street, Heidelberg,
Victoria, 3084 Australia
Abstract: The two major forms of disturbance in the mountain ash eucalypt forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria (southeastern Australia) are clear-fell logging and unplanned wildfires. Since the 1930s wildfire has been followed by intensive and extensive salvage-logging operations, which may proceed for many years after a wildfire has occurred. Although applied widely, the potential effects of salvage logging on native flora and fauna have been poorly studied. Our data indicate that the abundance of large trees with hollows is significantly reduced in forests subject to salvage harvesting. This has implications for the persistence of an array of such cavity-using vertebrates as the endangered arboreal marsupial, Leadbeater’s possum ( Gymnobelidues leadbeateri ). Salvage logging also reduces the prevalence of multi-aged mountain ash forests—places that typically support the highest diversity of arboreal marsupials and forest birds. Limited research has been conducted on the effects of salvage logging on plants; thus, we constructed hypotheses about potential impacts for further testing based on known responses to clear-fell logging and key life history attributes. We predict many species, such as vegetatively resprouting tree ferns, will decline, as they do after clearfelling. We also suggest that seed regenerators, which typically regenerate well after fire or conventional clear-felling, will decline after salvage logging because the stimulation for germination ( fire) takes place prior to mechanical disturbance (logging). Understory plant communities in salvage-logged areas will be dominated by a smaller suite of species, and those that are wind dispersed, have viable soil-stored seed remaining after salvage logging, or have deep rhizomes are likely to be advantaged. We recommend the following improvements to salvage-logging policies that may better incorporate conservation needs in Victorian mountain ash forests: (1) exemption of salvage logging from some areas (e.g., old-growth stands and places subject to only partial stand damage); (2) increased retention of biological legacies on burned areas through variations in the intensity of salvage logging; and (3) reduction in the levels of physical disturbance on salvage-logged areas, especially through limited seedbed preparation and mechanical disturbance.