Fire Resources
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.
Salvage Logging and its ecological consequences
Below is an extract from the book 'Salvage Logging and Its Ecological Consequences', by David Lindenmayer, Philip Burton and Jerry Franklin. This extract is sourced from the Central Highlands Case study and is very relevant to the current salvage logging program that VicForests are currently planning for the fire affected areas as of last Friday.
As previously mentioned, any forms of forest management in the fire-affected areas need to be postponed until the findings of the Royal Commission are given. Salvage logging, along with other forms of mechanical or human-induced disturbance outside of emergency fire suppression measures (that being the current fire fighting effort) will alter and/or remove evidence for the Royal Commission to investigate.
Fire intensity, fire severity and burn severity: a brief review and suggested usage
Several recent papers have suggested replacing the terminology of fire intensity and fire severity . Part of the problem with fire intensity is that it is sometimes used incorrectly to describe fire effects, when in fact it is justifiably restricted to measures of energy output. Increasingly, the term has created confusion because some authors have restricted its usage to a single measure of energy output referred to as fireline intensity. This metric is most useful in understanding fire behavior in forests, but is too narrow to fully capture the multitude of ways fire energy affects ecosystems. Fire intensity represents the energy released during various phases of a fire, and different metrics such as reaction intensity, fireline intensity, temperature, heating duration and radiant energy are useful for different purposes. Fire severity , and the related term burn severity , have created considerable confusion because of recent changes in their usage. Some authors have justified this by contending that fire severity is defined broadly as ecosystem impacts from fire and thus is open to individual interpretation. However, empirical studies have defined fire severity operationally as the loss of or change in organic matter aboveground and belowground, although the precise metric varies with management needs. Confusion arises because fire or burn severity is sometimes defined so that it also includes ecosystem responses. Ecosystem responses include soil erosion, vegetation regeneration, restoration of community structure, faunal recolonization, and a plethora of related response variables. Although some ecosystem responses are correlated with measures of fire or burn severity, many important ecosystem processes have either not been demonstrated to be predicted by severity indices or have been shown in some vegetation types to be unrelated to severity. This is a critical issue because fire or burn severity are readily measurable parameters, both on the ground and with remote sensing, yet ecosystem responses are of most interest to resource managers.
Volume 18(1) 2009
Salvage logging has started - what are the environmental effects?
The salvage logging/green logging is an industry practice following fire events – on top of current allocations they go into burnt-out forest and clear-fell with no A grade logs and 50-80% going to wood chip. The animals that have lost their source of food also lose their homes and future homes.
Tasmanian Native Forest Silviculture Technical Bulletin thinning regrowth Eucalyptus
Here is an interesting quote from the Forestry Tasmania Technical Bulletin - Thinning Regrowth Eucalypts. It may be of relevance when discussing the issue of prescription burns amongst other things.
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