F I R E A N D

B I R DSFire Management for Biodiversity

Compiled by Penny Olsen and Michael Weston

Supplement to Wingspan, vol. 15, no. 3, September 2005

2 Fire and Birds2 Fire and Birds

• Fire is an essential, natural force in the Australian landscape. Every year the continent has a large number of wildfires, caused by lightning or humans. Most are not regarded as disasters.

• Biodiversity loss is associated with high fire frequency, intense broadscale fire, and fire exclusion, all of which tend to homogenise the landscape. Increasing loss of habitat heterogeneity from the landscape is the single most damaging effect of poor fire management.

• Some 50 bird taxa and their habitats are currently threatened by inadequate, ill-informed fire management.

• The response of birds to fire is influenced by their life history characteristics and habitat needs. Hence, individual species may vary in their response to fire, and particular fire regimes (including fire exclusion) are essential to the survival of some species.

• The remaining populations of birds most threatened by inappropriate fire management occur in coastal heath and thickets, mallee and northern grasslands and woodlands—often areas of low human population.

• Land managers are seeking to incorporate ecological requirements into their management decisions and actions, and most States and Territories now require land managers to manage fire in fire-prone vegetation, and to use fire in ecologically sustainable ways.

• Fire management can generally be incorporated into management plans in such a way that neither biodiversity conservation nor other goals, particularly protection of human life and property, are sacrificed.

• It is important to identify regimes known or suspected to cause biodiversity and threatened species loss and manage the land to avoid these regimes.

• Maintaining a mosaic of habitats of different fire ages is recommended for large area fire management, but where habitats are small, fragmented and isolated, the options are fewer and the issues more complex.

• Across the north, regulation of exotic pasture grasses is a high priority for fire management and biodiversity conservation.

• Fire management must be ongoing and adequately resourced.

• There is a need for greater awareness, research and understanding of the role of fire in natural systems.

• In the absence of complete knowledge to guide management, it is prudent to apply the precautionary principle (that is, pursue the fire regime that is likely to be lowest risk in terms of environmental damage) and adaptive management.

• There is a need for a set of simple, flexible guidelines to help land managers manage fire for biodiversity conservation.

Above: Black Kites at a grassfire in the Kimberley, Western Australia, catching animals flushed by the smoke and flames. Photo by Dennis Sarson, Lochman TransparenciesLeft: The habitat of the Southern Emu-wren is vulnerable to wildfires in the dry seasons, but also threatened by deliberate burning for pasture. Photo by Nicholas Birks

Fire and Birds 3

Inappropriate fire regimes are the greatest threat to Australia’s birds after direct human destruction and alteration of habitats. Potentially, they are also one of the most manageable of threats. The introductory pages of this supplement summarise the key points from a diffuse and often contradictory literature on the interaction between fire and birds. They are complemented by stand-alone narratives authored by ecologists concerned that we are often failing in our management of fire. While there is certainty that current fire regimes are often damaging to the land and its wildlife, there is still much to learn about effective fire management to conserve biodiversity. Our hope is that this report will lead to greater awareness of the issues, implementation of bird and biodiversity-friendly fire management regimes, and refinement in knowledge of appropriate burning practices.

Australia has long been a dry, fire-prone country and for some 60,000 years people have used fire to manipulate the continent’s vegetation and wildlife. So commonplace is fire that much of the Australian biota has adjusted to occasional burning.

‘You got to burn the country… not leave him until he really dry, that means you destroy everything… cook it… Soon as wet season stop… grass starting to dry out, you burn grass then… so you don’t burn all the animals… if you burn it [then], some have a place to hide, but if you leave him, and you burn the grass you kill everything, that’s no good.’

Musso Harvey of the Yanyuwa people of the Gulf of Carpentaria

(quoted in Baker 2003)

‘Fire, grass, kangaroos and human inhabitants seem all dependent on each other for existence in Australia, for any one of these being wanting, the others could no longer continue.’

Sir Thomas Mitchell, Journal of an Expedition into the Interior

of Australia (1848)

In many habitats, fire histories and Indigenous explanations reveal a pre-European landscape of small burnt patches of various stages of fire succession, maintained by a system of burning which controlled the build-up of fuel, and reduced the incidence of large, intense fires. Since European occupation the magnitude and rate of change in human-fire interactions

has increased markedly. In the early days after settlement, fire exclusion and suppression was a common practice in more highly developed areas, but deliberate burning was used in many outlying areas to reduce fire hazards or maintain grazing values.

Contemporary fire regimes have tended to be either of two extremes: intense, extensive and uncontrolled wildfire mainly late in the driest season; or land seldom burnt. This results in loss of fire-sensitive species, habitats and patchiness in intensively burnt areas, or wood thickening and loss of savanna, granivorous species and general biodiversity in areas seldom burnt. Near centres of human population, at the urban and agricultural interface, Australian authorities have adopted broad area burning to reduce fuel loads, and protect human interests; however, fire may escape, and arson is also common. Over time these policies, mistakes and misdemeanours lead to a loss of heterogeneity and biodiversity across the landscape.

Until quite recently, European fire management has been directed at protection of human life and property. Now, biodiversity management is seen as important and there has been a shift towards its inclusion in legislation,

OVERVIEW

‘Fire is a force in terrestrial ecosystems that is equalled only by the impact of humans as they transform, fragment and degrade the Earth’s vegetation… Regardless of the changes wrought, fire is a central process in creating and maintaining ecosystem patterns and processes in most, if not all, Australian terrestrial ecosystems.’

John Woinarski & Harry Recher 1997

Fire is part of Australians’ heritage—it has and continues to shape much of our natural world. Historically, a fine-scale mosaic of different aged burns predominated, but since the early 20th century there has been an increase in hotter, extensive fires, more threatening from both a human and biodiversity perspective. Such inappropriate fire regimes, including the exclusion of fire, threaten over 50 bird species and subspecies and, since European settlement, have contributed to the extinction of two species. Yet inappropriate management of fire is one of the most tractable of the major threats to Australia’s wildlife. To some extent the old adage ‘fight fire with fire’ applies. Used well, fire is an effective, economical tool for land managers. Reintroduction of occasional fire into some landscapes, and return to a finer mosaic of burning, will not prevent wildfires; it may, however, reduce their impact, by maintaining fire-dependent habitat and protecting fire-sensitive birds. There will always be uncertainty, but by striving for practical and effective fire management objectives we can better manage the risks to both human life and property, and biodiversity.

Fire regime—the pattern of fire in a particular area over a number of years, including seasonality, frequency, interval between fires, intensity, extent and patchiness

KEY POINTS

Birds to WatchFor several bird species an inappropriate fire regime is the only major threat to their survival. Without continued implementation of effective fire regimes, these species are likely to move closer to extinction in the near future. They include: the Ground Parrot, Noisy Scrub-bird, Eastern Bristlebird, Western Bristlebird and Western Whipbird. The Partridge Pigeon, Malleefowl, Golden-shouldered Parrot, Black-eared Miner and, possibly, the Night Parrot are also at great risk from inappropriate fire regimes, among other threats.

4 Fire and Birds

policy and management (see ‘Bushfire management in the Northern Territory’ p. 16, ‘Tarawi Nature Reserve’ p. 5). Recent legislation in most Australian States and Territories not only requires that fire is managed by land managers in fire-prone vegetation, but that it is used in ecolog-ically sustainable ways. The importance of periodic prescribed fire (controlled burns) to increase or maintain biodiversity is now widely accepted.

Insights from Indigenous experience can help inform the development of effective fire management practices. Sadly, much of this knowledge has been lost or eroded. More importantly, landscapes are now substantially modified from those managed by Indigenous Australians—by weed invasion, introduced grasses, grazing, clearing and drainage; and reduced, fragmented habitats. These factors can dramatically alter fire impacts on landscapes and ecosystems.

‘I am confident that the indiscriminate burning of bush, which is the concomitant of all farming and grazing operations, is by a long way the major cause of the disappearance of many of our rarer birds.’

Edwin Ashby (1924)

The environmental impacts of fire on natural ecosystems are not well understood due to the complexity of the problem, paucity of research, and megadiversity of the Australian landscape. There are few detailed long-term studies of the effects of fire on avian communities, but there is sufficient information on fire effects from a broad cross-section of Australian habitats to identify patterns of response to individual fires (see ‘Responses of birds to fire’ p. 5) and predict likely long-term effects. Depending on the severity of the fire, the amount of vegetation burned and killed, and the weather during the recovery

Some definitionsBackburning: a fire that is intentionally lit to

consume fuel in the path of a wildfire.Bushfire or wildfire: a general term used to

describe a fire in native vegetation.Prescribed, controlled, fuel reduction, or planned burning: a fire lit under specified

(i.e. relatively safe) environmental and weather conditions to burn over a predetermined area, at a time, intensity and rate of spread necessary to achieve particular management objectives.

Fire-break: any natural or constructed discon-tinuity in fuel used to break up, stop or control the spread of a fire.

Fire age: the time elapsed since the last fire.Fire intensity: the amount of energy released

per unit length of the fire front, usually expressed as kilowatts (kW) per metre.

Fire regime: the history of fire in a particular area, comprising the frequency, intensity, season of burning (i.e. the time of year a fire occurs) and the type.

Type: refers to whether the fire is above-ground or below-ground (i.e. a peat fire), but as almost all fires in Australia are above-ground this component is usually irrelevant.

Fire succession: the series of stages that vegetation goes through in its recovery post-fire.

Fuel load: the amount of combustible material, especially easily ignitable material.

Hazard reduction burn: a fire intentionally lit to reduce the amount of fuel, and consequently reduce the risk posed by wildfires. Fuel is any material, such as bark, leaf litter and living vegetation, which will burn.

Trittering: mowing and mulching which involves pulverising the leaf litter so that it becomes compacted and burns more slowly with a reduced flame height.

Adapted from the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service Fire Management Manual (2001)

Responses of birds to a single fire eventThe effects of a fire on bird communities can be difficult to predict. They vary with fire intensity, season and extent; the characteristics of the site, climatic variation before and after; and time elapsed since fire. Species differ in their response to fire and individual species vary in their response. In general, the Australian bush and its wildlife can cope with single fire events, but over time frequent, widespread fires change the character of the landscape and its inhabitants, to the detriment of fire-sensitive species.

Before, during and after‘There was a sound as of thunder, mingled with the crashes of trees and the wild cries of legions of birds of all kinds; which fell scorched and blackened and dead to the ground.’

W. Howitt (1856) describing the 1851 Victorian bushfires

The immediate response to fire by birds depends on the extent, speed and intensity of the fire; habitat; and species of bird. It is likely that many birds take action well in advance, and depart or seek shelter.

Some birds are overcome by the heat, smoke or flames, and their nests may be destroyed. More mobile species tend to fare better, though some terrestrial species take refuge in wet areas, burrows and logs.

Other birds, including some raptors, insectivores and seed-eaters, are attracted to fire and its charred results, moving in from adjacent habitats or drawn from far and wide by the smoke. This is particularly so in the north, where Black and Brown Falcons, Black and Whistling Kites, Australian Bustards, woodswallows and Tree Martins often arrive in large numbers to feed on flushed, killed or injured animals. Granivores, including Gouldian Finches, exploit seeds exposed by the fire. After a relatively short time they move on, sometimes to the next fire. By contrast, in temperate areas a more successional colonisation of the burnt areas occurs and the initial post-fire scene is often one with few birds.

The first year‘In the first year after the fire, the avifauna of burnt habitats differs from that which develops later, or which was present before the burn.’

John Woinarski & Harry Recher (1997)

The reduction of food and cover for some resident bird species leads to starvation, predation or emigration. Species suited to more open habitats, mainly seed-eaters and insectivores, may move in temporarily, from adjacent areas or further afield, to take advantage of a flush of insects and seeds generated by the quickly responding growth of grasses and flowering annuals. Examples include: Straw-necked Ibis; Torresian Crow; butcherbirds; Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo; Galah; quail; nightjars; Red-backed Kingfisher; Partridge Pigeon and several finch species in the north; Scarlet and Flame Robins; and Buff-rumped Thornbills in the south. These species move on or their numbers thin out as regeneration progresses.

Later years‘The pattern and rate of change in species abundance following fire differs according to habitat, floristics, fire history, climate, patch size and isolation and patchiness of the fire.’

John Woinarski & Harry Recher (1997)

As regeneration proceeds, species present before the fire begin to return or build up; most populations recover within three to ten years, while a few take decades to return to pre-fire levels. Periods of low rainfall may slow the recovery of vegetation and return of birds. In habitats typically slow to regenerate, such as old-growth forest, their characteristic species—e.g. hollow tree nesters and canopy feeders—may still be absent or less abundant 50 years after an intense fire that kills canopy trees.

Tarawi Nature Reserve fire management plan Tarawi Nature Reserve is in the semi-arid mallee of New South Wales. The key elements of the Reserve’s fire management plan put into practice much of the new knowledge in conservation science.

General conservation goal: to manage fire to minimise the risk of any native species becoming extinct. Objectives: • ensure consecutive fires are at least 20 years apart in any one area;• ensure a range of post-fire ages are present in the reserve (at least 50% of each mallee community

should be >40 years old) to promote patchiness in wildfires, although a scale of patchiness is not specified due to lack of knowledge;

• determine the biodiversity values of long-unburnt mallee (>70 yrs);• burn strategically to contain the spread of wildfires that may violate the thresholds for fire

frequency, post-fire age diversity or patchiness requirements.Extracted from Keith et al. (2002)

Maintaining fire-free habitat fragments: Helmeted HoneyeaterA number of colonies of the critically endangered Helmeted Honeyeater (west Gippsland subspecies, also known as the Yellow-tufted Honeyeater) were destroyed by the Ash Wednesday fires—for example, those at Cardinia and Cockatoo Creeks. Thus, the remaining colonies, in streamside lowland swamp forest at Yellingbo, are maintained as essentially fire-free, although the Ranger has trialled small-scale burning to control the introduced grass Phalaris.

BRUCE QUIN, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria

Cumulative impacts: the Black-eared MinerThe Black-eared Miner numbers less than 450 breeding individuals. Its habitat is mallee that has been unburnt for 20 or more years, where it reaches highest densities 40 or more years since burning. Much of its former habitat in the Murray Mallee has been cleared for agriculture. Yellow-throated Miners have colonised man-made clearings within intact mallee and are interbreeding with the Black-eared Miners, swamping most populations except at Bookmark Biosphere Reserve. Hybridisation and fire are now the major threats to the species’ survival.

MICHAEL CLARKE, La Trobe University, Victoria

Large logs can act as micro fire-breaks, adding desirable heterogeneity to the habitat, and they

offer refugia for animals in their moist interior. Regrowth in the early succession stages after fires,

particularly in the south of the country (here Tiajara, NSW), attracts small insect-eaters such as Scarlet and

Flame Robins. Photo by Graeme Chapman

Fire and Birds 5

Fires in the mallee can create flushes of food for the Malleefowl, but it needs long-unburnt

country to breed. Photo by Lynn Pedler

period, most avian communities recover rapidly following single fires regardless of fire intensity. However, even single fires may pose a significant threat to species with restricted distribution, limited reproductive potential, poor dispersal ability and/or narrow habitat requirements. Birds persisting in fragmented habitats are particularly at risk because the whole fragment can burn and, post-fire, small fragments may not be recolonised by all of their original species.

Nonetheless, far more threatening across a broad range of avian communities, are increases in fire frequency and extent, on the one hand, and fire exclusion on the other. These tend to homogenise the landscape, and offer fewer options for survival and recolonisation.

Detrimental fire regimes have contributed to the extinction of two of the three bird species, and three of the four subspecies, lost since European colonisation. Inappropriate fire management is now a factor in the threatened status of over 50 nationally recognised threatened bird species (see table p. 6). Of those threatened species whose relationships with fire have been well-documented, almost all show a preference for less frequent, less extensive fires than have occurred in recent decades.

Though the task is daunting, the costs of inaction are great. Fire can be an economical way to manage large tracts of land, on a fine scale, with benefits to biodiversity and human needs. The challenge will be to identify and develop the appropriate fire regimes to maintain fire-dependent habitats and protect the fewer fire-sensitive habitats. The single greatest need for land managers incorpo-rating fire into their management is a useful tool to determine appropriate fire regimes (see ‘To burn or not to burn’ and ‘Towards a set of biodiversity-friendly fire management principles’ p. 6).

The land area of Australia burned in the last five years. Map prepared by Cameron Yates and Brian Lynch (NT Department of Infrastructure Planning and Environment), from information supplied by WA DOLA.

DARWIN

TENNANT CREEK

ALICE SPRINGSMT ISA

BRISBANE

SYDNEYCANBERRA

MELBOURNE

HOBART

ADELAIDE

KALGOORLIE

PERTH

GERALDTON

PORT HEADLAND

FIRE SEASONS

Winter and spring

Spring

Spring and summer

Summer

Summer and autumn

The timing of the main fire seasons reflects the different weather patterns. Note the tendency for summer/autumn to be the danger period in the southern States, and winter/spring in the north. Source: www.bom.gov.au

Flame Robin. Photo by Peter Merritt

Threatened birds and fire regimes. This table presents some simple rules for bird-friendly fire management1. Local conditions and threatened species should be used as a finer guide to management.

Main habitat

Threatened species for which inappropriate fire management is a threat2

Current general fire problem for bird conservation

Fire management for bird conservation

Coastal and sub-coastal shrublands

Orange-bellied Parrot CE Ground Parrot (eastern) VGround Parrot (western) CE Rufous Scrub-bird (northern) VNoisy Scrub-bird V Southern Emu-wren (Fleurieu Peninsula) CESouthern Emu-wren (Eyre Peninsula) V Eastern Bristlebird (northern) CEEastern Bristlebird (southern) EWestern Bristlebird VRufous Bristlebird (Otways) VWestern Whipbird (western heath) V

Too frequent burning; too coarse a mosaic.

Pattern: Fine mosaic of areas of different fire-ages with a bias towards retention of older fire ages.Intensity: Low.

Mallee Malleefowl VMallee Emu-wren VBlack-eared Miner EWestern Whipbird (eastern) E

Fire management (prescribed burns or Aboriginal burning regimes) has been much reduced so that wildfires are too hot and extensive.

Pattern: Mosaic of areas of different fire-ages with a bias towards retention of older fire ages. Fire frequency at most every 40 years in any particular area.Intensity: Low.

Temperate eucalypt open forests

Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo (south-eastern) E Glossy Black-Cockatoo (Kangaroo Island) EHelmeted Honeyeater CE [riparian]Forty-spotted Pardalote E

Fire exclusion. Pattern: Mosaic of fire-ages across the landscape with a bias towards retention of older fire ages.Intensity: Flexible use of a broad range of fire regimes.

Tropical and sub-tropical forests/rainforest

Southern Cassowary VRed Goshawk VBlack-breasted Button-quail VMasked Owl (Tiwi Islands) E

Fire exclusion permits spread of fire-sensitive species.

Pattern: Mosaic of fire-ages across the landscape with a bias towards retention of older fire ages.Intensity: Occasional hot burns.

Tropical and sub-tropical savanna woodlands and grasslands

Buff-breasted Button-quail EPartridge Pigeon (western) VGolden-shouldered Parrot EParadise Parrot Ex Night Parrot CE Hooded Robin (Tiwi Island) VCrested Shrike-tit (northern) EGouldian Finch E Star Finch (Cape York) E

Fires now too hot, extensive and frequent, or, alterna-tively, too infrequent.

Pattern: Fine-scale mosaic of fire-ages across the landscape, with between 10 and 30% of landscape burned each year. Intensity: Occasional hot burns.

Wetlands Australian Bittern (Australasian) V Burning of habitat to create pasture.

No prescribed burns.

1Based on information in Woinarski (1999) www.deh.gov.au/biodiversity/publications/technical/fire/2Extracted from Garnett & Crowley (2002). Categories of threat in decreasing order of severity: Ex = Extinct; CE = Critically Endangered; E = Endangered; V = Vulnerable; subspecies name in brackets. Twenty-two other species are listed as Near Threatened, and inappropriate fire regimes are among their major threats.

Australia is a large and diverse country, hence there are many views and requirements for biodiversity-friendly fire management. The following are some of several recommendations in the literature: • Encourage precautionary fire management.• Be aware that fire regimes need to be local and

focus on particular objectives.• Wherever possible develop guidelines and

prescriptions for landscapes and biological communities, not individual plants and animals.

• However, where there are species or groups of species that are susceptible to decline under certain fire regimes, fire management regimes should be framed around their needs.

• Aim for fire management targets that are ranges rather than optima; for example, rather than choosing the best time for one species pick a range of times and fire intervals that cover several species.

• Avoid fire regimes known or suspected to result in loss of biodiversity in the same or related ecosystems.

• Be aware that fire frequency is a key element of fire management—with few exceptions both fire exclusion and short intervals between fires over a broad area are damaging to biodiversity.

• Similarly, broadscale, intense fires are damaging to heterogeneity of habitats

across the landscape, and hence to biodiversity values.

• Hence, aim to reduce the extent of land/proportion of vegetation community burned in single-fire events, no matter what time of year that happens.

• Use fire at a small scale to promote spatial and temporal variability in fire regimes across the landscape, that is, a patchwork of areas of different fire-ages and histories.

• Understand that fire-generated patchiness is good but must be at the right scale (for example, in relation to the species being managed or the size of the remnant).

• Develop prescriptions to limit the extent and spatial invariability of fires by controlling fire behaviour, rather than by imposing artificial exclusion zones and intervals between fires.

• Accept that there will always be gaps in knowledge, which introduce an element of uncertainty in the decision-making process.

• Allow for unplanned fires.• Climate change means that the country is

likely to be entering a period of hotter, drier conditions, which will produce more extreme fire events, which will need to be factored into management.

• Apply adaptive management, including monitoring, to inform decisions and improve management.

To burn or not to burnFire regimes result from complex interplay between biotic (e.g. fuel loads) and abiotic factors (e.g. weather conditions), increasingly overlaid with human decisions in support of a variety of land uses, including biodiversity conservation. Land managers must weigh up these factors to estimate the threat from uncontrolled fire and the desirability of a controlled burn.

One approach to the prediction of the threat of fire.

Source http://www.planning.sa.gov.au

LIVING WITH FIRE—BIRDS IN NORTHERN AUSTRALIAAustralia’s north is a landscape of fire, and some naive ideal of fire suppression and exclusion will neither work nor suit most bird species by John Woinarski

Climatic conditions, vegetation, social factors and human population dispersion cause fire to be a very different phenomenon in northern Australia to that elsewhere in the continent. The north is monsoonal, with a strongly seasonal climate marked by a long, almost rainless, warm dry season (typically from about April to October), and a strongly contrasting hot wet season.

Fire is an inevitable part of this landscape. The dense, tall grasses grow rapidly over the short wet season, and then dry out over the long dry season, becoming highly flammable. Without human intervention, this vegetation burns readily with ignition from lightning strikes, a characteristic feature of the first thunderstorms that mark the transition from the dry to the wet.

Humans have long been moulding this landscape. For the Indigenous people fire has been a crucial part of life and their main management tool for 40,000 years or more. Such application of fire was far from reckless. The consequences of ill-advised fire management were severe: vital food sources could be eliminated through inappropriate fires, and fires that spread to burn neighbouring clan estates could invite retribution. In parts of northern Australia this tradition continues. In these areas, the application of fire may be a highly skilled and carefully considered operation, carried out diligently throughout the year. Typically, this traditional management involves many small ‘cool’ fires, producing an intricate network: a fine-scale mosaic of unburnt patches and patches burned at different times through the year. Often, the more fire-sensitive components of the landscape—such as rainforest patches—were explicitly and deliberately protected from fire, typically by burning around their margins. These elements were valued because they produced important foods, particularly yams, in traditional diets; and the maintenance of such fire-sensitive elements in a clan estate was a sign of proper management.

Over the last century, traditional Indigenous fire management in most of northern Australia has broken down. Indigenous people were dispossessed from much of the landscape. Even in lands that maintained Indigenous ownership, population dispersion and lifestyles changed. In the decades around the Second World War, most of the population moved off their clan estates to live at mission stations and other townships. In some areas, this dynamic has been reversed through the ‘outstation movement’, beginning in the 1970s. But, over most of northern Australia, traditional burning has been disrupted and replaced by very different fire regimes.

South-eastern Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos and FireThe endangered South-eastern Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo is a dietary specialist; it eats only the seeds of three tree species—Brown Stringybark, Desert Stringybark and Buloke. Supplies of these seeds are patchy in space and time, and flocks tend to concentrate on the seed stocks that can be most efficiently harvested. There is mounting evidence that cockatoo breeding success is related to the availability of fresh stringybark seed crops.

The stringybark forests of south-western Victoria are highly flammable and the heathy understorey requires fire to maintain its floristic diversity. However, fires that burn or scorch the canopy result in reduced seed production for up to nine years. Therefore, the widespread burning of stringybark forests through the twentieth century may have been a cause of population decline in the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo. With this in mind, a moratorium on burning was imposed in 1989. However, there are now good ecological and asset protection reasons for resuming planned burns.

In an attempt to resolve this impasse, the Department of Sustainability and Environment, with the support of the recovery team, has trialled methods of burning the understorey while minimising canopy scorch. This is a tall order in stringybark forests, where the fibrous bark tends to carry flames upwards. However, given the right conditions of fuel moisture and weather, the trials are suggesting that ecological burning aims, or asset protection aims, can be met whilst minimising the impact on future crops of stringybark seed.

PETER MENKHORST AND JIM MCGUIRE, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Victoria

Fuelling fireThe current fire regimes vary somewhat between tenures. On pastoral lands, which occupy about half of northern Australia, fire is generally unwanted and suppressed—livestock consume most of the grassy fuels, so that fire behaviours and intensities are now different to those that prevailed over tens of thousands of years. Partly because of the reduced incidence of fires, vegetation in many pastoral areas is changing, often with increases in the density and extent of woody shrubs and decrease in grassland areas (‘vegetation thickening’). Fires on other tenures are now characterised by an increased incidence of late dry season burns, and these are typically more intense and extensive. The previous fine mosaic of patchy burnt and unburnt areas has been replaced by broad-scale confla-grations that homogenise the landscape. Far more often than previously, these fires engulf the fire-sensitive elements of the landscape.

Superimposed on this change in fire regimes is the consequence of the increasing and largely uncontrollable spread of African and South American pasture grasses, deliberately introduced by pastoralists and pasture scientists to transform (‘improve’) the landscape. This insidious set is marked by their ability to dominate almost every environment in northern Australia, including wetlands (Para Grass, Olive Hymenachne), tropical open forests and savanna woodlands (Gamba Grass, Mission Grass, Guinea Grass) and semi-arid woodlands (Buffel Grass). The replacement of native understoreys by introduced pastures is itself an ecological wound but, worse, these grasses also greatly alter fire regimes. Largely because they are voracious consumers of soil nutrients, exotic grasses produce fuel loads that are far greater than native grasses (up to seven times the biomass), and they typically cure later in the dry season. This inevitably means that fires fuelled by exotic, invasive pastures are more intense (up to 10 times hotter) than fires with native grass understoreys. Whereas previously fires in northern Australia burned the grassy understorey and rarely affected the tree layer, exotic grasses are now fuelling crown fires that kill the tree layer.

Currently, fires burn about 30–50% of northern Australia each year. Many areas have been burnt every year over the last decade. The scale and recurrence of fires is vastly different to southern Australia. In extent, the regular fires of northern Australia dwarf the bushfires in south-eastern Australia, such as Ash Wednesday and those in the south-east high-country in 2003. For example, in five days of October 2004, a fire in the Sturt Plateau and northern Tanami Desert of the Northern Territory burned out an area greater in size than Tasmania, but didn’t even make headlines in the local newspapers.

contours slope

fire historyvegetationland cover

fuel loadings

standard fuel &weather conditions

constructedvalues

naturalvalues

McArthurFire Model

Hazard

Threat

Values

Risk

Risk/Hazardmatrix

structuresroads and trailsresidential

revegetationresidentialstructures

fauna valuesflora values

Wildfire at Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory. Photo by Raoul Slater

Fire and Birds 7

Below left: With less than 50 known individuals the Eastern Bristlebird (northern subspecies), of Cooloola National Park and the Conondale Ranges, Queensland,

is critically endangered. Its main threat is changed fire regimes, with fire now too frequent, destroying the species’ tussock grass habitat, or too infrequent, allowing

shrubs to become too dense. Below: Fires remove dense ground cover to expose seeds on which the finches feed, but may also destroy wet season food species, and nests. Here a Masked Finch collects charcoal for its nest (presumed to help

keep the nest dry and sanitised). Photos by Graeme Chapman

Towards a set of biodiversity-friendly fire management principles

6 Fire and Birds

Fire and Birds 9

Short-term impacts on birdsSo, how do birds in northern Australia fare with fire, and how have recent changes in fire regimes and management affected birds?

There is substantial variation among the bird species of northern Australia in their immediate responses to fire, and in their longer-term responses to fire regimes. Many bird species are attracted to burning and recently burnt areas. The most conspicuous of the immediate responders are raptors—partic-ularly Whistling Kites, Black Kites and Brown Falcons—which hunt, sometimes in very large numbers, among the flames of the fire front for fleeing large invertebrates and small vertebrates. These birds may not only benefit directly from fires, but may also be firebugs themselves—there are many reports of kites spreading fires by snatching up burning sticks and dropping them ahead of the flames. This attraction of raptors to fires was used by some Aboriginal hunters, who built elaborate rock hides in which they lit smoky fires and waited to grab or spear hawks that came close to investigate. Other birds attracted to the fire front include woodswallows and swifts which, like the raptors, may make regional-scale movements tracking the fires.

Even the relatively slow and cool burns of the early dry season may kill some invertebrates and small vertebrates, and many birds are attracted to the carrion in the immediate aftermath of fires. These include butcherbirds, Australian Bustards, crows, ibis, Magpie-larks and kingfishers. As with the raptors, some of these birds may undertake regional-scale movements from one recently burnt area to another. Fires provide benefit not only for carrion-eaters, but also to a wide range of terrestrial species. When unburnt, the dense tall grasses of northern Australia may be a major impediment to foraging for

many bird species. The cool fires of the early dry season remove this barrier, but typically do not greatly reduce the density of inverte-brates or seeds lying dormant on the soil surface. Thus, recently burnt areas attract a very wide range of seed-eating birds, typically including Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos, Galahs, Cockatiels, Little Corellas, Peaceful Doves, Diamond Doves, Partridge Pigeons (or their near equivalent, Squatter Pigeons, in Queensland), and a multitude of finches. The open ground layer makes for easier foraging for insectivores and carnivores, such as Hooded Robins and butcherbirds.

Of course, not all is for the best. Certain species, such as Red-backed Fairy-wrens and some quails, need the dense grass layer for shelter and nesting; and will suffer greatly increased predation rates in recently burnt areas. In a delicate balancing act, some bird species need both burnt and unburnt areas. For example, in the early dry season, Masked Finches and Partridge Pigeons nest on or near the ground. Fires at such times are likely to destroy many nests, and, for Partridge Pigeons at least, nest predation rates are likely to be much lower where their ground nests are at least partly sheltered under grass cover. But these birds will struggle to access enough food over the course of the dry season if their territories are completely unburnt. The optimum fire regime for such species is one of very fine-scale intricate burning, where each year part of the territory or home range is burnt and part unburnt. Such a regime requires fire patches at about a hectare scale. This pattern of burning is no longer prevalent in northern Australia. Rather, the current regime is characterised by burnt and unburnt areas in patches of tens to hundreds of square kilometres.

Long-term impacts on birdsBirds respond not only in the short-term to individual fires, but also over the longer-term to the patterned history of burning over many years. In parts of temperate Australia (such as in the mallee, coastal heaths and mountain forests), this is a sharply etched response, as there may be a conspicuously contrasting vegetation succession over the multi-decade interval between fires. The vegetation response to fire regimes in northern Australia is typically more nuanced. The relatively few long-term studies—that typically describe experimental situations where great efforts must be made to exclude fires for any length of time—suggest that there is relatively little, or slow, change in plant species composition with increasing time since fire. However, protection from fire does lead to a substantial structural change in vegetation. When an area is unburnt for five or more years, instead of the very simple vegetation profile of trees and grass that characterises most northern Australian forests, a diverse shrubby mid-storey develops, and continues to increase in height, cover and diversity with increasing duration since fire. Correspondingly, with increasing shading, the grass layer diminishes. These vegetation changes inevitably favour some bird species and disadvantage others. Many of the shrubby plants produce (very tasty) fleshy fruits, and the increasingly dense mid-storey provides good nesting sites and an increased foraging resource for some insectivorous birds. Birds that occur in greater abundance in such relatively long-unburnt areas include White-throated Honeyeater, Dusky Honeyeater, White-gaped Honeyeater, Northern Fantail, Weebill, Lemon-bellied Flycatcher, and Bar-shouldered Dove. Conversely, birds such as butcherbirds, kingfishers and Red-backed Fairy-wrens, that prefer the simpler structure of trees and grass, are markedly less abundant in areas long untouched by fire.

Over the long period, fire regimes change not only the vegetation profile within any patch, but also the borders between—in doing so they alter the relative extent of different vegetation

Accepting a fiery futureOver tens of thousands of years, the fire regimes of northern Australia were actively and consistently managed. This produced some (not necessarily ideal) sort of equilibrium and reasonable stability in the vegetation patterning, and hence bird species composition. Over the last century (in many areas, over the last few decades), that long-established fire regime has come to a halt, and in its place is an erratic, inconsistent and far less knowledgeable management of fire. This change has destabilised that equilibrium. As a result, some species will increase and some will decrease. Some of the decreasers are likely to suffer at least regional extinctions.

The conservation and management challenge in northern Australia is profound. It is a landscape of fire, and some naive ideal of fire suppression and exclusion will neither work nor suit most bird species. Fortunately, there remain some areas where traditional Aboriginal management of fire is practised, and we still have the opportunity to learn from this expertise. One priority is to provide support for the nascent ranger schemes that have sprung up on some Aboriginal lands, to help get Aboriginal people back onto and managing their estates.

Another priority is to develop far better regulation of the use of exotic pasture grasses. Currently, there are almost no limitations on the deliberate spread of these weedy species on pastoral lands. Rather, it is typically encouraged, and there is a largely passive acceptance by most regulatory authorities of the grasses’ inexorable spread from pastoral properties to neighbouring Aboriginal and conservation lands. Another priority is to improve understanding of the role of fire in northern Australia. Bushfires in southern Australia tend to be infrequent, ‘destructive’ and shocking: for a short time at least they concentrate the mind. In northern Australia they are so much a part of the landscape that they are accepted blithely. Their environ-mental impact is far more subtle and gradual

than in the south, and hence we are less driven to think about their role. But ecology and conservation can be undermined as much by repeated subtle and insidious factors as by occasional showy episodes.

John Woinarski works as Principal Research Scientist for the Northern Territory’s Department

of Infrastructure, Planning and Environment, and is engaged in a broad range of research

projects including wildlife survey, conservation planning, ecological studies of threatened animal

species and the impacts of fire and pastoralism.

types. In northern Australia, frequent fires will generally favour expansion of grasslands, and reduction in fire frequency will favour increases of woody vegetation. On pastoral lands of Cape York Peninsula, a reduced frequency of fires has led to invasion of grasslands by paperbarks (Melaleuca), substantially reducing the area of suitable habitat for the endangered Golden-shouldered Parrot. Conversely, the grass-wrens of sandstone escarpments in northern Australia (the Black, White-throated and Carpentarian) are now all threatened by a fire regime that is too frequent, and eliminates the large old clumps of spinifex (Triodia) that these species require. Acacia-dominated woodlands (the ‘pindan’ of the Kimberley and lancewood in the Northern Territory and parts of central Queensland) are also being eroded by the increasing frequency, intensity and extent of fires, to the detriment of birds such as Hooded Robin and Grey-crowned Babbler. Other fire-sensitive vegetation in northern Australia includes rainforests and heathlands, and these may also be under some threat from increasingly frequent fire.

Left: A change in fire regime threatens the eastern Spinifex Pigeon. Photo by Jonathan Munro, www.wildwatch.com.au

Below: Late dry season fires which burn the fringes of gallery rainforest and paperbark thicket can destroy large trees with holes for the Rufous Owl and its prey species, including the Brush-tailed Possum. Photo by Jonathan Munro, www.wildwatch.com.au

8 Fire and Birds

Above: The threatened White-throated Grasswren occurs only on and around the Arnhem Land escarpment where frequent hot fires are causing spinifex to be replaced by annual sorgum. Photo by Graeme Chapman

Below right: Partridge Pigeons (here the yellow-faced Kimberley race) persist in areas where a mosaic of fire ages has been maintained; the western subspecies is threatened, but the eastern subspecies is faring better where traditional burning regimes have continued. Photo by Jiri Lochman, Lochman Transparencies

10 Fire and Birds

At over 3,200 km2 Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary in the central Kimberley is a big place. Although its size is fairly typical of holdings in the tropical savannas of Australia, it is atypical because it is being managed for the conservation of biodiversity rather than for cattle grazing. Mornington is owned and managed by the non-government, non-profit Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), which owns 12 other ecologically important properties around Australia. Mornington protects a diverse set of ecosystems that are under-represented in government National Park estate. Sandstone escarpments, black-soil plains, moist rocky gullies, streamside vegetation, spinifex ridges and open savannas support a diverse assemblage of plants and animals. Not surprisingly, fire—or equally important its absence—is the dominant ecological force affecting all of these habitats.

Declining seed-eatersMornington is home to one of the last remaining large populations of Gouldian Finches. Once spread right across the northern third of the continent in flocks of thousands, in the last few decades a precipitous decline has restricted the finch to tiny pockets, in numbers of mere tens

and hundreds. Many other species of seed-eating (granivorous) birds have suffered a similar fate. It is thought that the main reason for these declines is the exacerbation of a natural food shortage early in the wet season.

The onset of the annual monsoon causes widespread germination of seed reserves that are the staple of most tropical grassland granivores during the dry season. When rains come, perennial grass species are the first to respond with seed, and the time this takes to occur is the ‘Achilles heel’ of these granivores. If early seeding perennials are delayed, become scarce or drop out of the system completely, Gouldian Finches and other granivores may be forced to fly long distances in search of food. This, combined with the physiological stress of starvation, may be enough to tip them over the edge.

Ongoing research at Mornington, involving telemetry and indices of health, has shown that Gouldian Finches switch to spinifex as soon as the superabundant sorghum starts to germinate. In other parts of their distribution, they switch to Cockatoo Grass or Ribbon Grass. All of these plant species are sensitive to fire, and evidence suggests that some, particularly spinifex, require long fire-free intervals to set seed. Also, being unpalatable to stock, spinifex is often burnt repeatedly by graziers in pasture improvement programs.

As is often the case, ecological patchiness or heterogeneity, especially in relation to fire history, is the key to maintaining large areas of seeding grasses for Gouldian Finches in the early wet season.

Mornington: recent fire historyIn terms of heterogeneity Mornington is somewhat lucky. In some areas, creeks and rocky topographical features break-up the landscape so that, in the absence of hands-on management, fires tend to burn heterogeneously by default. In other areas, however, fairly uniform landscapes mean that unimpeded fires tend to burn large areas, creating little in the way of habitat hetero-geneity. Hence, when left unchecked, large areas of Mornington burn too frequently and too homogeneously (see map at left).

AWC acquired Mornington in 2001. Prior to this, very little active land management meant that large areas burned late in the year (when fires are most intense, and can cause most ecological damage) even though the total number of fires was small at this time (see graph top right). The negative effects of hotter, more damaging fires compounded the negative effects of

Eye in the sky: fire mapping via satelliteFire information for the Kimberley is recorded from satellite imagery in two forms:

(1) ‘Hot Spots’ show the location of current fires and are mapped from satellite imagery up to 8 times a day (see map below right). Hot spots are accurate to about 1.1 km and give a rough guide to the location and extent of the fire front. To show the direction of travel, different symbols show hotspots that were detected 0–6, 6–12, 12–24 and 24–48 hours, and 2–7 days, previously. Land managers can be alerted instantly and automatically to the presence of a fire within a user-specified area via email (see the North Australia Fire Information website: http://138.80.201.250/nafi/init.jsp).

(2) ‘Fire Affected Areas’ (FAAs or fire scars) are mapped from satellite imagery every 7–9 days and show the area burned or affected by fire (see map centre right). The accuracy of the fire scar maps derived from satellite imagery is dependent on the image resolution. FAA maps are used by local government agencies and land managers in the Kimberley region to assess what, when, and how often areas have been burnt since 1993. They are used to assess broadscale fire regimes and as a guide in aerial control burning during preventative burning programs in the early dry season.

Currently, there are four types of imagery used to map FAAs in the Kimberley, each with a different resolution (see table). On Mornington, FAA maps (see maps left and centre right) are derived from NOAA, MODIS and Landsat Quicklooks. The fire scar information is used to determine aspects of fire history such as fire extent and frequency, which helps us determine which areas have been burnt too often, and which have not been burnt for a long time. Together with information about floristics and other factors (for example, wet season feeding areas for the Gouldian Finch), this helps us to decide which areas to protect from fire, and which may require burning. Maps that show the time of year a fire occurred (early or late dry season) are good indicators of fire intensity. Both of these types of fire map are vital for operations on Mornington, and should be used wherever possible to inform biodiversity-friendly fire management programs right across Australia’s tropical savannas.

Studies in recent years have indicated that northern Australia is on the edge of a biodiversity crisis, which almost certainly relates to changes in the way fires now burn across the landscape. While the general cause is widely accepted (that is, homogenisation of the landscape), the specific ecological interactions remain unclear. However, this lack of knowledge should not preclude active management within a set of broadly defined and relatively simple guidelines, for example, reducing the size of individual fires and generally increasing the fire-free interval within localised vegetation communities. Thankfully, the visual tools to help us guide and assess these management objectives are freely available.

Steve Murphy and Sarah Legge are ecologists with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. They are based at

Mornington, in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. Nat Raisbeck-Brown is a Geographical Information

Systems analyst who works for the Kimberley Regional Fire Project, based in Broome.

MORNINGTON: A MODEL FOR FIRE MANAGEMENT IN AUSTRALIA’S TROPICAL SAVANNASThe magic of satellite imagery helps guide biodiversity-friendly fire management on a vast Kimberley land holding by Steve Murphy, Sarah Legge and Nat Raisbeck-Brown

10 Fire and Birds Fire and Birds 11

Summary of the imagery available to map areas affected by fireSatellite Image Type Resolution Smallest fire scar that can be detected

NOAA 1.1 km 2 x 2 km

MODIS 250 m 500 x 500 m

Landsat 30 m 60m x 60 m

Landsat Quicklooks 120 m 240m x 240 m

Cost to user Frequency of fire scar information Area covered

Free 9 days Australia

Free 7 days Australia’s tropical savanna (Cairns to Broome)

>$1000 15 days 150 km

Free 15 days 150 km

When dry season food resources disappear Gouldian Finches switch to spinifex seed; because spinifex doesn’t set seed until many years after fire, too frequent burning

can destroy this critical resource. Photo by Steve Murphy

The size of the largest fires recorded during the dry season at Mornington (columns, legend on left axis), superimposed on the average number of fires per month (line, right axis), 1999–2003. The largest recorded fire occurred during the late dry season

(August-September), but the average number of fires per month on the property was lowest during this period. In other words, individual fires were more extensive in the late dry season.

Area burned by time of year for 1999 over Mornington (boundary shown in purple) and the surrounding region. Late dry season fires tend to burn more extensively than those lit earlier.

A Hot Spot and Fire Affected Area map for Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary. These maps are updated regularly and are freely available to land managers from the North Australia Fire Information service http://www.firenorth.org.au/nafi/init.jsp

homogeneity. This pattern not only occurred on Mornington, but also was evident throughout the region (see map centre right).

The Mornington fire management paradigmGiven that fires late in the year are often started by lightning strikes, it is easy to accept them as natural, and therefore tempting to think that they may not present a problem ecologically. While this may be true in a vast landscape that is pristine, the reality is that truly pristine and ecologically intact habitats nowadays are rare; instead they are highly fragmented and separated by areas no longer suitable to maintain and support complete species assemblages. This is true even for tropical savannas that are superficially intact. Thus, land managers can no longer afford to risk losing habitat patches in single fire events because re-colonisation is impeded by fragmentation, to the point where species can be lost from patches forever.

Our long-term aim at Mornington is to reduce the area burned in single fire events. We can achieve this via a program of wet and early dry season fuel reduction burning and physical fire-breaks around particularly important areas (e.g., wet season food areas for Gouldian Finches). To help us with this challenging task, sophisticated satellite imagery and interpretation allow us to look at past burning patterns, keep track of current fires, and determine if management actions are achieving our aims.

Areas burned on Mornington in three consecutive years (2001, 2002 and 2003). Note that this is a see-through map so that it is possible to see all years at once, with the effect that the darker the stippling, the more frequently the area has burnt. It is clear that some areas experienced large fires over multiple years, whereas others areas experienced smaller fires and overall more heterogeneity. Differences like these are due mainly to the effects of topography and other geographical happenstance.

Prescribed burning at Mornington. Photo by Steve Murphy

14

12

10

8

6

4

2

0

800

600

400

200

0

Km

2

Averag

e no

.

early dry(mar–may)

mid dry(june–july)

late dry(aug–sept)

build-up(oct–dec)

needing recurrent funding can’t be fixed, so aren’t worth the effort.

Expanding rainforests and thickening woodlandsIn Queensland, a different picture was emerging. It was found that grasslands and wet sclerophyll forests were being invaded by more fire-sensitive, fire retarding ti-tree woodlands and rainforests. Similar changes have now been observed in other parts of northern Australia. Important habitats are being lost because of ineffective fire regimes. Rather than disproving claims of too much fire, these changes indicate that lack of fire and too much fire can and do co-exist. In the past, mosaics that stopped fire spreading uncontrollably also left pockets of fuel right until the first lightning storms. Those pockets tended to be in places too wet to burn earlier in the year. On Cape York Peninsula, long grasses in drainage depressions typically won’t burn before September. By then, they should be surrounded by a network of fire-breaks. If not, a fire sweeping through the country in October will consume such grassland along with the rest of the country. But, if protected, these grasslands will burn readily as the first storms arrive. The closer the fires to the wet season, the more grasses are favoured over trees, so the grasslands are maintained.

One of the most striking features of northern Australia in the late dry season is the amount of recently burnt country. Each year millions of hectares of Cape York Peninsula, northwest Queensland, Top End of the Northern Territory and Western Australia’s Kimberley region are burnt. The 2004 season was particularly severe (see box p. 14), but in most years up to one-quarter of northern Australia is burnt. Unsurprisingly, fire management is one of the biggest environmental issues in the north. John Woinarski’s article (see pp. 7–9) describes how failure to manage fire affects the environment and its inhabitants. Intense fires mean tree loss, and extensive dry season fires not only render vast areas of habitat unsuitable for fire-sensitive birds, but also prevent the lighting of fires needed later in the year for habitat maintenance. Tropical fires are also one of Australia’s biggest producers of greenhouse gas.

A state of indifferenceEffective fire management requires an understanding of complex environmental issues, adequate resources, and cooperation between land managers across the north. The problem is not simply one of too much fire, but a failure to manage fire. As in southern Australia, not enough importance has been placed on preventing wildfires for effective management to be instituted or adequately funded. But in contrast to southern Australia, the apathy is more likely to result from familiarity than from infrequent experience. To many northern Australians, fire is no more than an inconvenience that brings days of unpleasant smoke and blackens the countryside. As the intensity of heat is generally far lower than in the south, people are rarely killed or even injured by bush-fires.

Economic costs are usually restricted to loss of pastures for a few weeks to a few months, depending on how late the wet season rains set in. The country will green up again, so why worry? That apathy is beginning to change.

Good fire, bad fire: shifting perceptionsThe push for change has not come from people who have suffered heavy losses, but from a real concern for the environment, and recognition of the impact that removal of the Indigenous people has had on the land. In 1969, Rhys Jones caused a stir by insisting that far from being firebugs, by burning wherever they went, Aboriginal Australians effectively managed the country. But it was not until 1985 that it was demonstrated why this was good for the land. Chris Haynes, intending to spend time convincing a group in Arnhemland to burn less, found instead that the more burning they did, the less country got burnt. Fires lit soon after the wet season were small and patchy. As the country dried out, the fires spread a little further, and as the people moved about more, networks of fires produced fire-breaks. Late in the dry season the country was tinder dry, but the mosaic of burnt and unburnt areas stopped any fires that were lit from travelling far. Soon came the appreciation that the more work put into burning country early in the dry season, the more country remained unburnt into the next wet.

This appreciation underpinned fire management on Kakadu National Park from the late 1980s. But it has not always been successful. Proper fire management requires planning and resources, substantial financial and time commitments, and has to be done properly every year. But in this country, most environmental management is funded poorly or briefly, with the assumption that problems

How hot?There is one more contributing factor, and that is the type of fuel available to burn. In most northern environments, fires travel through the grass layer only. Changes in fire regimes through the drier savanna woodlands of the Top End of the Northern Territory have promoted heavy fuel loads of the annual, native sorghum. In places, African Gamba Grass introduced for cattle grazing has led to even heavier fuel loads. Repeated fires in pastures dominated by these heavy grass loads can eventually eliminate all canopy trees.

In wetter areas, fuel loads have probably been reduced. Cattle collect in these areas as the dry season progresses. The heavier the grazing pressure, the lower the fuel loads, and the less effective fires are at maintaining open vegetation. And the less grass there is, the easier it is for trees to invade. Some ecologists believe that the wet sclerophyll forests of northern Queensland will never burn hot enough while cattle are allowed to graze in them.

A different northClearly, without effective fire management, the north Australian landscape will gradually change. In drier areas, where fires are frequent and intense, savanna woodlands could become treeless. Heath plants, which can take years to produce seed, may disappear. In wetter areas, where early fires are ineffective at retarding invading trees and shrubs, and the grass is heavily grazed, reduced fire intensity will continue to allow wet sclerophyll forests and grasslands to disappear under rainforests and ti-tree woodlands. These vegetation changes will advantage some common birds and other

for managing them well; budget allocations reflect this.

Many hope that the simplest answer is a return to Indigenous burning patterns. But in the vast expanses of traditional lands across the north, mosaic burning persists mainly in places where the traditional owners have never left the land: where hunting, fishing and collecting bush tucker are not just part of the lifestyle, but an integral part. Returning to country does not often mean returning to constant broadscale use of country. Much of the country is too remote to get to, and the fires lit around outstations and along access tracks are inadequate to pull up wildfires. A more important problem for traditional owners is gaining access to the land, and deriving a means of earning a living on it.

wildlife, but specialised species such as the Golden-shouldered Parrot and Yellow-bellied Glider will continue to decline.

Failure to manageThree different sectors control most of the lands of the north: conservation, pastoralism and Indigenous land use. The reasons these groups aren’t controlling fire as well as they might comes down to lack of understanding, motivation, cooperation and capacity.

One would think that loss of pasture, and potential loss of stock would encourage pastoralists to limit the amount of country burned, and it does. But pastoralists are reluctant to burn green, nutritious grass at the start of the dry season, and would rather risk the loss of crisp dry fodder at a time when rain may be just around the corner. Besides, the best of the sleek, fat cattle have been sold by the middle of the dry season, and most of the bony beasts that collect around water holes at the end of the year seem to get through, even if fires remove the last skerrick of grass.

National Parks managers, on the other hand, are not worried about turning off a profit, so should be able to burn at whatever time of year is appropriate. But that time has to fit in with other Park duties, such as visitor management, toilet cleaning, road maintenance, meetings and paperwork, and the availability of staff and of helicopters to get to remote areas. Funding cycles may mean plans can’t be made until well into the financial year, when burning programs need to start in April and continue un-interrupted until the end of July. Critically, greater political kudos is gained from buying properties for National Parks, than

MANAGING PERCEPTIONSCan a change in attitude towards fire and its management ameliorate environmental problems in Australia’s north? by Gabriel Crowley and Peter Thompson

Fire and Birds 13

Top left: Across northern Australia, the Red-backed Fairy-wren favours dense ground vegetation, which can be destroyed by frequent, widespread fires. Photo by Graeme Chapman

Centre: The aftermath of fire in tropical woodland near the Drysdale River, Western Australia, habitat of the endangered Crested Shrike-tit (northern subspecies). The species feeds on insects under the bark, which is damaged by the too frequent, hot fires that are now more prevalent than under Indigenous burning regimes. Photos by Graeme Chapman

Below: Grazing by cattle, and introduced pasture grasses, have changed the ground rules for fire management over much of the north. The Australian Bustard prefers the early successional stages after fire; often moving to newly burnt grasslands and spinifex. Photo by Michael Todd

Good management: putting fire on the agendaThe problems of the different sectors may vary. But many of the solutions are the same. In remote areas, good fire management needs adequate resources and people with the necessary knowledge and skills. Across the north there are many projects trying to develop cooperation between all landholders. These have recently combined into The North Australia Fire Project of the Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Savanna Management (http://savanna.cdu.edu.au/information/fire_knowledge_project.html). The project has four elements. The first is helping with immediate fire management by providing up-to-date information on where fires are, and assisting with putting in fire-breaks. The second is building the capacity of communities to plan and manage by providing jobs in fire management and training (in everything from incident management to use of computers, geographic positioning systems and geographic information systems). The third is to provide access to information required for long-term planning, such as the response of plants and animals, fire behaviour and cattle management, and to develop appropriate fire strategies to guide planning. The fourth is to provide information about fire through dedicated websites.

Seeing the fire problem as more than just an environmental issue is already having positive results. Rural fire brigades are providing training for jobs in natural resource management tasks that may include fencing, weed and feral animal control, as well as fire management. Cooperation between landholders in the Kimberley in Western Australia has resulted in the traditional owners being invited on to cattle stations to undertake fire management (see box below left). The Cape York Peninsula Sustainable Fire Project has been successful at convincing increasing numbers of landholders to undertake preventive fire management, assisting them with the information, skills and resources to do so. And as mosaic burning is also an effective means of reducing carbon emissions, there is the prospect for substantial funds to be committed towards fire planning and management well into the future.

Despite the 2004 fire season being one of the worst in recent years for the north, cooperative programs for managing fire are starting to show results. Land managers are beginning to appreciate just how much effort needs to go into fire management, and it will be some years before effective systems are in place. The most important thing now is for the momentum to be maintained.

Gabriel Crowley and Peter Thompson are with the Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Savanna Management’s North Australia Fire Project, and

Peter is employed by the Cape York Peninsula Development Association.

A landscape of fireIn 2004, fires burned 25% of Australia’s tropical savanna region. Most of the early season fires were lit as part of dedicated land management, of which a major objective is to stop the spread of later fires. But this burning was not enough. Much of the Kimberley (regions NK and CK), Arnhemland (ARC, ARP and CA), Sturt Plateau (STU), NT Gulf (GFU and GUC) and Cape York Peninsula (CYP and GUP) were burnt in extensive late dry season wildfires. This pattern is similar year in year out, and the consequent loss of trees and of plants dependent on fire for seeding is a particular concern in parts of the Northern Territory.

Areas that weren’t burnt tend to be more intensively managed, with smaller block sizes and fuel sparse on the ground by the end of the year. These include parts of Queensland that are subject to vegetation thickening, attributed to a combination of overgrazing and inadequate use of fire.

Map compiled from: (i) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) mapping undertaken by the Bushfires Council of the Northern Territory and the Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Savannah Management, and (ii) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite sensor data, containing 250 m and 1.1 km, on-ground pixel resolution, mapped by the Remote Services Unit of the Department of Land Information, Western Australia. Explanations for the abbreviated names of the bioregions can be found at: http://www.deh.gov.au/parks/nrs/ibra/

Below and inset: The grassy habitat of the Golden-shouldered Parrot needs a hot burn to stop encroachment by dense woodland formerly held at by

Indigenous burning practices. Photos by Michael Todd

Kimberley Fire ProjectThe Fire Control Team (FCT) project (www.kimberley-fire-project.com.au) has been operating since January 2003 under the Kimberley Regional Fire Management Project. The FCT has built relationships with two Aboriginal language groups in the Fitzroy Valley to develop fire management teams that can assist landholders with on-ground preventative burning. The teams are now looking to strengthen the project through a Business Plan that takes into account cultural boundaries.

14 Fire and Birds

Kurungal Fire Team use a station map to plan fire management on Bohemia Downs in the Kimberley of Western Australia. Photo by Will Philippiadis

FIRE AND ITS MANAGEMENT AT NEWHAVEN RESERVE: TAKING A REGIONAL APPROACHRecent fires have returned Newhaven to a mosaic of fire ages by Grant Allan

In the past there have been extensive fires in the Newhaven Reserve region, notably in the mid 1970s, associated with the last prolonged period of above-average rainfall in central Australia. There were also several fires within and surrounding the Reserve in 1985. However, by 1999 the effect of previous fires was no longer obvious. The three-year period of above-average rainfall from 1999 to 2001 created uniformity in the fuel load and a high fire risk throughout the region. Consequently, fire management was identified as a priority for the new management team at Newhaven.

The sequence of Landsat satellite image maps from 2001 to 2004 illustrates a series of fires that have caused dramatic changes to the landscape of the Reserve. From 1999 to mid 2002, most fires started beyond the Newhaven boundary and burned a relatively short distance into the Reserve. Newhaven became an island of fuel. Subsequent fires, mostly started as roadside ignitions within Newhaven, changed that situation.

As a result of these recent fires, the pattern and distribution of fire ages within Newhaven changed from a relatively uniform mature state to a variety of recently-burnt early successional states. Currently, there are very few long unburnt patches of vegetation within the Reserve and all are small.

Birds Australia recently received a small EnvironmeNT grant from the Northern Territory government for Rachel Paltridge of Desert Wildlife Services, Alice Springs, to prepare a fire management strategy for Newhaven. The strategy will be closely linked to the Vegetation Map of Newhaven prepared in 2003. It will be important to include a regional perspective in the strategy, as many fires burn into Newhaven from beyond its boundaries. The strategy will require both an active burning program as well as an ability to suppress fires when necessary. An additional challenge will be to ensure the strategy includes appropriate sensitivities to the local bird populations, and addresses the use of fire to control invasive weeds such as Buffel Grass.

Grant Allan, Bushfires Council of the Northern Territory, Alice Springs

Fire can spread from cars lit and left to burn by the roadside; here at Newhaven, but not an uncommon event across northern Australia. Photo by Don Royal

Landsat satellite image maps for Newhaven (at centre): May 2001; October 2001, January 2004; November 2004. Recent fires are red, which gradually fade to orange then yellow; the salt lake is blue and white; the main road is black and white; tracks are green-blue; and tenure boundaries are orange.

Fire and Birds 15

Fire and Birds 17

Spinifex grasslands cover most of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (UKTNP). While the Anangu traditional owners and park managers (Parks Australia North [PAN]) have undertaken cool season, small patch burns for 20 years, intense summer wildfires periodically burn vast areas of the park and surrounding spinifex landscapes, generally following extended periods of above-average rainfall. Commencing in 1987, CSIRO, PAN and traditional owners studied the distribution of vertebrates across the park’s habitats, and how animal distribution and abundance changed in response to rainfall and fire. Periodic monitoring of eight permanent sites has continued to the present, and 13 years’ data from one site are presented here to illustrate the effects of fire and rainfall pulses on a spinifex bird community.

Site 5 is a Soft Spinifex landscape, with scattered Desert Oak and sparse shrubs. A north-south road bisects the site, and the eastern half (East) last burned in 1985, two years prior to the first fauna survey, whereas the western half (West) last burned in 1976. Bird abundance was low initially (densities about one bird ha-1). In spring 1988, more than 250 mm of rain fell and a dramatic increase in bird abundance resulted, largely due to the immigration of nomadic species such as Budgerigar, Crimson Chat and Masked Woodswallow (see graph top right). Despite further substantial falls of rain over the rest of 1988 and early 1989, abundance declined.

In 1992 a wildfire burned West, reducing it from mature spinifex habitat to an early successional state. At the same time, eight years after last burning, East was approaching a mature state. Following a substantial rainfall (more than 100 mm) over summer 1994–1995, a dramatic increase in bird abundance was recorded during the autumn 1995 survey.

When the graph (below right) is examined closely, it can be seen that within the first three-year period post-fire bird abundance was always greater on whichever half was more recently burnt: that is, East in the 1987 and 1988 surveys, and West the 1994 and 1995 surveys.

Whilst observations from a single site may be equivocal, similar results were obtained at other spinifex-dominated sites, reinforcing the notion that early successional states support higher abundances than mature and maturing spinifex habitats. Particularly following heavy rainfall, early

FIRE AND BIRDS IN SPINIFEX GRASSLANDSBirds of the spinifex are ruled by rainfall and fire by Julian Reid

Bird Abundance vs Time Since Fire, East

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Total bird abundance recorded on 1-km transects on the East (shown as x–x) and West (o--o) halves of Site 5, Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park following fires. Rainfall is shown as bars.

There was no consistent relationship between bird abundance and time since last fire in spinifex grasslands—the highs in bird abundance were rainfall driven.

The Striated Grasswren favours mature spinifex. Photo by Lynn Pedler

Fire management issues in Central AustraliaAlthough fire is not generally perceived as being associated with desert landscapes, in arid Australia fire occurs on a regular basis and is an important driving force in the ecology. It is therefore critical that arid zone land managers plan for the use of fire and be ready to manage its impact.

Current fire regimesClimate is the main determinant of the occurrence of fires in central Australia. During the last century periods of above average rainfall have occurred in cycles of 25 to 30 years. Historical accounts of extensive wildfire seasons show a direct correlation with these wetter years rather than with periods of drought. Nevertheless, fires do occur at other times, when local conditions contribute to the accumulation of fuel and enable ignitions to spread and develop into major fires.

Historically, the patterns of fire activity are associated with three distinct components of the landscape, with links to broad vegetation communities. ‘Spinifex communities’ are most regularly and extensively impacted upon by fire. ‘Non-spinifex vegetation communities’ have the least frequent incidence of fires. ‘Mountain range areas’, with a mix of spinifex and non-spinifex vegetation, have their own unique fire management issues. Interestingly, the separation roughly equates to areas of Aboriginal land, pastoral land, and conservation land, respec-tively, but during periods of above-average rainfall each landscape component can be severely affected by wildfires.

Spinifex communities occur on the extensive areas of sandplains and dunefields, typical of desert regions. Spinifex is very flammable and fuel loads steadily accumulate as the hummocks increase with time. The rate of accumulation is variable in association with rainfall, and the interval between fires—limited by the accumulation of fuel—can be as long as 20 years.

The non-spinifex communities are a diverse range of vegetation communities. They include grasslands on cracking clay soils, open woodlands with a mix of grasses and acacias, and some areas of acacia woodlands with minimal understoreys. Fuel loads in these areas respond more rapidly to rainfall relative to the spinifex areas, but cattle and other grazing animals, including termites, readily consume the grass. Therefore fuel loads only build to high levels across the landscape after extended periods of widespread rain, when growth can far exceed consumption.

The mountain ranges are complex areas, with non-spinifex communities dominating the flatter portions of the landscape and spinifex dominating the hills and ridges. Within the ranges are innumerable gorges and gullies, which are both important scenic locations for parks and tourism as well as refuges for animals and fire sensitive plant species.

ThreatsLarge wildfires are undesirable for most plants and animals, especially if there are no unburnt island refuges within the burnt area. This includes both domestic stock and native animals.

The time of the fire in relation to soil moisture and rainfall can also increase the impact of fires. Hot fires in dry times mean the post-fire recovery of vegetation and associated food resources is very slow. Uncontrolled ignitions in times of widespread fuel loads, especially during recent years, have caused large wildfires. The fires have damaged infrastructure and fences, destroyed pasture for grazing animals, and directly killed cattle and other animals.

Fires can also reduce the extent of fire sensitive vegetation communities, such as Mulga. The fires kill mature Mulga plants and increase the opportunity for spinifex to invade the Mulga community.

A relative new feature of the fire regimes of central Australia is Buffel Grass. It was introduced as a pasture grass, but has taken over most alluvial areas and is continuing to spread into other habitats. Buffel Grass can recover quickly from a fire and will out compete other plants to become dominant.

The rapid build-up of Buffel Grass fuel has increased the fire frequency in many areas and long-lived woody species, such as River Red Gums, Corkwoods and Beefwoods, are suffering from the frequent fires.

There are many areas in central Australia where it is desirable to exclude fire. These include sheltered gullies in range country, and long-lived fire sensitive communities such as Mulga and Lancewood. Protecting these areas from fire is a difficult task.

What we can doLand managers need to plan for fire, both for its use and its risk. Fire may not be a regular feature within any specific part of the landscape, but it is important to be prepared. Active fire management is required, as is the appropriate use and timing of fire.

The easiest job is to monitor spinifex areas and burn patches to create a mosaic of fire ages. It is also important to manage fuel loads in high-risk areas, especially along main travel routes where uncontrolled ignitions are most likely. It is possible to use fire as well as grading, slashing and grazing programs to reduce fuel loads.

It is more difficult to be prepared for seasons of above-average rainfall and widespread fuel loads. However, it is important to plan to use fire, for habitat management or control of woody thickening, and be ready to respond when season and rainfall conditions combine to create an opportunity to burn.

Reprinted courtesy of Grant Allan, Bushfires Council of the Northern Territory

www.ipe.nt.gov.au/whatwedo/bushfires/index.html

BUSHFIRE MANAGEMENT IN THE NORTHERN TERRITORYWhite-breasted Woodswallows (left) and Crimson Chats (below) are attracted in great numbers to northern Australian fires, to hawk for insects flushed by the heat and smoke. Photos by Greg Holland and Leon Keasey, www.birdphotos.com.au and Dave Watts, Lochman Transparencies, respectively

16 Fire and Birds

successional habitats experience a burst of ephemeral plant growth that can attract a long list of nomadic bird species, for example, Little Button-quail, Australian Bustard, raptors, songlarks and White-winged Triller.

What are the lessons?• Typically, spinifex grassland bird communities have few species and

these are low in abundance. Less than 10 species appear to be resident at Site 5, and most of these (Singing Honeyeater, Yellow-throated Miner, Black-faced Woodswallow, Pied Butcherbird) are associated with emergent shrubs and trees, such as Desert Oak, rather than spinifex itself.

• Bird communities differ in abundance and composition in response to fire in spinifex grasslands. However, the magnitude and timing of these responses are not predictable, and are largely dependent on ensuing major rainfall events. Following heavy rains, immigrant nomadic species can numerically dominate spinifex habitats and be particularly abundant in recently burnt areas, within three years of last fire, when a burst of ephemeral plant growth provides diverse food resources (nectar, seed, invertebrates).

• Of the (loosely) sedentary species that feed and nest at ground and near-ground level, fairy-wrens and the Striated Grasswren favour mature spinifex grasslands, while the Banded Whiteface occurs patchily in early successional habitats. The presence of habitat of an appropriate successional state does not guarantee a species’ occupancy.

Preliminary management recommendations:• Given the patchy distribution of bird species of conservation

significance, and the capability of severe wildfire to reduce extensive tracts of spinifex landscapes to the one successional state, it is prudent to pursue an active patch burn strategy, as has been adopted at UKTNP. This form of management can limit the extent of some wildfires and will promote finer-scaled mosaics of different fire ages than result from the action of wildfires alone.

• Wildfires should not be excluded from these landscapes—indeed they probably cannot be excluded from any but small areas. Patches burned by summer wildfires, in combination with cool season prescriptive burns, can be expected to increased vegetation heterogeneity across the landscape, and such mixes ought to promote a greater bird species diversity at the larger spatial scale.

Julian Reid is based at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems and ANU Centre for Resource and Environmental Sciences, Canberra.

Spinifex grassland burns near Hall’s Creek, Western Australia. Photo by Graeme Chapman

Fire and Birds 19

Noisy Scrub-birds, Western Ground Parrots, Western Bristlebirds and Western Whipbirds—all known to be fire sensitive and listed as threatened species—occur on the south coast of Western Australia, often in close proximity to each other.

Curiously, these birds occur in an environment in which fire is a prominent natural process. Summer lightning strikes ignite intense wildfires, a regular occurrence on the south coast of Western Australia. For about the last 50,000 years this has been overlain by Aboriginal burning, apparently frequent but spatially variable. Interestingly, the intensive Aboriginal fire regimes allowed scrub-birds, bristlebirds, Ground Parrots and whipbirds to persist in this fire prone environment. Then, about 100 years ago, another major change occurred—Europeans started fragmenting the natural vegetation and made profound changes to existing fire regimes.

Generally, fire became less frequent but more severe and more extensive, and re-colonisation of burnt areas was hampered by fragmen-tation of the habitat. This process has been a major factor in the decline in scrub-birds, bristlebirds, Ground Parrots and whipbirds, and undoubtedly some other species. It has also resulted in major challenges for conservation managers.

Managing Mt ManypeaksOne area that constitutes a particular challenge in fire management is Mt Manypeaks, to the east of Albany and just east of Two Peoples Bay. A census in 2001 showed that this area contained about 55% of the global population of the Noisy Scrub-bird, more than 25% of the population of the mallee heath subspecies of the Western Whipbird and, on the lower slopes, significant numbers of the Western Bristlebird. In addition, small numbers of the Critically Endangered Western Ground Parrot were known from the flats to the north. The area also supports threatened mammals and plants, as well as invertebrates of high conservation significance. For some of these species, optimal fire regimes are unknown;

for others, requirements differ between species. As distributions of these species are highly overlapping, management of fire is not straightforward.

While some of the lower slopes and adjacent plain have burnt in recent years, the mountainous part was last burnt in 1979 and in recent years have carried high fuel loads. The Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM), which is responsible for the management of this area, and the South Coast Threatened Birds Recovery Team (SCTBRT), were concerned about the inherent risks to very high nature conservation values posed by these high fuel loads. However, the density of threatened birds in the area and their conflicting requirements made simple solutions difficult. And any fuel reduction program in scrub-bird habitat would result in reductions in the numbers of individuals. Issues such as these were discussed at a series of workshops in 2002–2003, which ultimately developed a strategy aimed at creating a mosaic of fuel ages in the area over time. Many people contributed, including SCTBRT members, members of other relevant recovery teams and various fire management specialists. In 2004, as part of this fire management strategy, the SCTBRT endorsed a prescription burn that was to be carried out in winter 2005.

However, in late December 2004, before the strategy could be implemented, a lightning strike ignited the southern slopes of the mountain. This was to develop into a major challenge for fire fighters, and result in significant losses of Noisy Scrub-birds.

A local fisherman reported a thin column of smoke in the area

on 31 December. Fire fighting resources were immediately mobilised and, because of the high conservation values, suppression of the fire was given a very high priority. Over 160 personnel, including CALM staff from as far away as Geraldton (over 700 km to the north), were involved with the suppression activities over the ensuing days. Four water bombers, two spotter planes and one helicopter were also involved. Unfortunately the high fuel loads on the southern slopes and lack of ground access made operations very difficult. It took several days to establish secure boundaries around a larger area and this made it possible to contain the fire through back-burning. Populations of Noisy Scrub-birds and other threatened species to the east and west of the Mt Manypeaks study area were then protected, as well as private property to the north. The fire was under control by 6 January, although pockets of vegetation associated with peat were still smouldering in early February.

The impact of the wildfire on the Noisy Scrub-bird was substantial (see map below). While a few would have undoubtedly managed to escape to neighbouring areas, it is expected that almost all of the birds in the 427 territories counted in the Manypeaks study area in 2001 have perished. Furthermore, the loss in this one event of 4500 ha within approximately 13,000 ha of optimal habitat, in addition to approxi-mately 4000 ha of habitat that has been burnt by wildfires since 2001, means that there are now only around 4500 ha of optimal scrub-bird habitat left in the Albany area.

THREATENED BIRDS AND WILDFIRE IN SOUTH-WEST WESTERN AUSTRALIAFire management must be tailored to local values and constraints by Allan Burbidge, Sarah Comer and Alan Danks

The recent wildfire has highlighted the importance and historical successes of the scrub-bird translocation program. This was aimed at decreasing the susceptibility to fire by spreading the population across the wider landscape. Mt Manypeaks was the site of the first translocation of Noisy Scrub-birds in 1983. The founder group of 31 birds (18 males and 13 females), was released in 1983 and 1985. The growth in this area to a population index of 427 singing males in 2001 (see graph below) was quite remarkable, and was achieved through a policy of fire exclusion. The population was continuing to increase, as indicated by a survey of 800 ha on the eastern end of Mt Manypeaks in 2004. However, the recent wildfire has reduced total numbers to roughly what they were ten years ago.

The Western Whipbird (western heath subspecies) population was also impacted by the wildfire. The area burned contained habitat for approximately one-quarter of the total population. In conjunction with wildfires in 2003, the habitat for approximately one-third of the western heath subspecies of whipbird has been affected.

Above: The Noisy Scrub-bird is restricted to a few small, isolated populations in south-western Australia; its decline in large part due to inappropriate burning regimes—it needs dense thickets unburnt for 40 years or more. Photo by Graeme Chapman

Left: 2001 Noisy Scrub-birds territories in the Albany management zone (shaded grey) and fire history 2000–2004

Far left: Western Whipbird (male). Photo by Graeme Chapman

Left: Western Bristlebird. Photo by Simon Nevill, Lochman Transparencies

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On the other hand, Western Bristlebirds colonised the Manypeaks ridge after the 1979 fire, but as the vegetation increased in height, they disappeared from the area. Following the recent fire, presumably they will be early colonisers and will do well again for a period of time. After every fire there are both positive and negative impacts.

One positive outcome of the Mt Manypeaks fire is that we now have a ‘blank slate’ with respect to planning for future fire management. Monitoring populations of scrub-birds, whipbirds and bristlebirds in 2005 will give us a good picture of the current population status of all of these species in the Albany Management Zone. In coming years, it will allow us to study their responses to wildfire in a way that hasn’t previously been possible. Post-fire development of both vegetation and leaf-litter invertebrates (food for all three bird species) will also be monitored.

Results of such studies on threatened birds are being used to underpin future management decisions aimed at avoiding similar drastic population declines on the south coast in the future. Exactly what this management will be at Manypeaks is not yet clear, but it will continue to involve ornithologists, fire specialists and local area managers in collaboration, to develop practical options that have specific conservation aims, and to monitor the effect of management actions. An important principle here is that fire management must be site-specific. The conservation values and physical environment of one site are different from the next. Also, the preferred fire regime for one species will

likely to provide for long-term persistence of the diverse conservation values of the area, although this will mean lower numbers of Noisy Scrub-birds.

Managing threatened birds on Western Australia’s fire prone south coast is challenging and complex. As part of their commitment to this task, the South Coast Threatened Birds Recovery Team and local CALM staff will continue to design and implement fire management strategies and monitoring of outcomes, to improve the conservation status of threatened plants and animals in the region.

Allan Burbidge, Sarah Comer and Alan Danks are ecologists with the

Department of Conservation and Land Management, Western Australia.

be different from the next. It follows that, for optimum conservation outcomes, fire management for a given site must be tailored to the local values and constraints, and based on good knowledge of the response to fire shown by individual species.

In the case of Mt Manypeaks, everyone agrees that the area is far too valuable for the ‘do nothing’ option to be acceptable, as it will simply result in further extensive and damaging fires. In the next few years there is an opportunity to establish a managed fire regime that minimises the risk of extensive fires affecting the whole of the mountain area. Of course this means the area will support fewer Noisy Scrub-birds and Western Whipbirds than it did immediately prior to the December 2004 wildfire, but the population should be more sustainable. This, in turn, may benefit other threatened species such as the Western Bristlebird.

It is likely that a number of strategies will be utilised, in combination with public partic-ipation to increase awareness of the values of the mountain and the practical difficulties in management. Some extra slashed breaks have been put in place in strategic locations in recent years, but more physical fire-breaks are not likely to be an option, partly because of the terrain, and partly because of the increased risk of the spread of Phytophthora (which destroys many plant communities on the south coast), and increased fire ignition risk. Aerial ignition under moist conditions, which allows the ridges to burn but not the gullies, could be used to provide a mosaic of fire ages. This approach is the one most

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Ngarkat is an extensive area (2,670 km2) of mallee heath vegetation in South Australia that abuts Victoria’s Big Desert (see map p. 22). The area has been set aside as a reserve in part because it supports a range of rare and threatened species, including Mallee Emu-wrens, Western Whipbirds, Red-lored Whistlers, Striated Grasswrens and Slender-billed Thornbills. Also present are Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters, Purple-gaped Honeyeaters, Rufous Fieldwrens, Shy Heathwrens, Inland and Buff-rumped Thornbills, Variegated and Superb Fairy-wrens, and Southern Scrub-robins.

The area experiences frequent fires that are started by lightning during late spring and summer. Beginning in December 1990 there have been four extensive fires that burned an estimated 582 and 658 km2 (January 1999), 274 km2 (November 2002) and 200 km2 (January 2005), respectively (see map p. 22). Despite being a large park, over the last 15 years more than a third of it has consisted of vegetation in early (less than 10 years) post-fire succession, and over 60% is less than 20 years post-fire. Some of the central areas of Ngarkat have experienced up to six fires in the last 60 years and only a limited area (15%) has not been burnt in that time.

Each year since 1990, the numbers of birds using these mallee heaths were counted along two 1.5 km long (x 100 m wide) strip transects at 32 sites, spaced at least 3 km apart. During that time, 26 sites have been burnt at least once, with six of these burned twice and one site burned three times, at least partially. These counts provide a unique opportunity to investigate how the bird populations recover following fire.

How does mallee-heath birdlife respond to fires?Unlike heathland vegetation, most heathland birds have no special adaptations to cope with fire. They either flee the fire by moving to unburnt areas, or they perish. One only needs examine recently burnt

areas in Ngarkat to appreciate this—immediately after fire there are no typical heathland birds present on burnt areas. In many cases the adjacent unburnt areas are already occupied and so there are few places available to act as refuges. Counts in unburnt areas adjacent to burnt areas in Ngarkat typically show no increase in abundance even after extensive fires—clearly, few birds survive by moving to adjacent unburnt areas.

In contrast, mallee-heath vegetation responds immediately post-fire. Some species sprout from epicormic buds protected from the heat of the fire by bark (Eucalyptus), soil (Allocasuarina, Leptospermum) or dense foliage (Xanthorrhoea). Other plant species subsequently re-establish populations from germination of seeds protected in woody cones during the fire’s passage with the seeds shed immediately after the fire (Banksia) or germinate from seed banks in the soil. Although this vegetation response may be rapid, for most of the birds there is a period of several to many years before the structure and productivity of these regenerating heaths are once again adequate to support them, the time varying between species. Thus, fires in these mallee heaths result in the temporary removal of suitable habitat for most species of birds.

Many patterns of recoveryUnderstanding the patterns of re-colonisation of burnt habitat by heathland birds, and the factors that influence them, are critical to managing these mallee heaths. Simply recording when a species is present on regenerating heaths is unlikely to be an adequate measure of successful re-colonisation. In the initial years of occupation, the birds that are present may not be able to breed successfully. Ideally, one needs to establish when regenerating heaths allow a species to reproduce. Nevertheless, the abundances of species on regenerating heaths with time since fire are likely to be indicative of its habitability.

Our data illustrate that Richard’s Pipit, an open country species prominent on recently burnt heaths, is an early successional species (see graph at left). Other species take longer to re-establish on regenerating heaths. Some, such as the Slender-billed Thornbill and Rufous Fieldwren, are more abundant on heaths around five years post-fire, whereas Variegated Fairy-wrens are more prominent about 15-years post-fire, but all of these species are present in older heaths as well.

The most striking pattern in the abundances of most species is that they fluctuate, sometimes greatly, from one year to the next. Thus, there are no simple patterns of changes in abundance post-fire, and factors other than time since fire are also important. For example, the low numbers of Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters ten years post-fire are due largely to a period of drought from 1999–2002, nine to 12 years since the 1990 fire, and the high numbers 13–16 years post fire are due to high counts of this species during a wetter period (1992–1994) on sites last burned in 1978.

BIRDS AND FIRE IN THE MALLEE HEATHLANDS OF NGARKATLack of information on ‘hot spots’—havens for wildlife during times of stress—hinders fire management by David C. Paton, Daniel J. Rogers,

Matthew J. Ward and Jody A. Gates

Clockwise from top left:

Fire burning through thick heath towards the Mt Manypeaks ridge in the first few days of the 2004 fire. Photo by Alan Danks

The heathlands of Mt Manypeaks before the 2004 fire. Photo by Sarah Comer

Members of the South Coast Threatened Birds Recovery Team—John Blyth, Allan Burbidge and PhD student Abby Berryman—visit Manypeaks after the fire. Photo by Alan Danks

Waterbombers were used in an attempt to slow progress of the fire front during the initial stages of the wildfire. Photo by Alan Danks

The great variation in annual changes in winter (July–August) density of six species of birds over time since fire (TSF). Density is given relative to the maximum density recorded for that species. RP = Richard’s Pipit, AM = Australian Magpie, CAL = Rufous Fieldwren, SBT = Slender-billed Thornbill, TCH = Tawny-crowned Honeyeater, VFW = Variegated Fairy-wren.This diagram is a composite, with six study sites, last burnt in 1978, contributing to abundance estimates beyond 15 years since the fire. The other 26 sites contributed primarily to the earlier time since fire categories. The patterns shown are truncated in the sense that they are limited to heaths that are no more than 26 years post-fire, so some care is required in interpreting post-fire patterns. Most of Ngarkat’s mallee heathland birds do occupy older heaths, up to 50 years post-fire at least.

Fire and Birds 21

Hot fires are considered a threat to the patchy mallee shrub habitat of the Red-lored Whistler. Photo by Lynn Pedler

20 Fire and Birds

22 Fire and Birds

The actual timing and extent of re-colonisation are not just a function of the regenerating heaths reaching some level of suitability, but are also likely to be influenced by the area of heath that is burnt relative to the unburnt heaths that remain. If large areas are burnt, the capacity of the remaining unburnt areas to produce sufficient surplus individuals to restock the burnt areas with birds is reduced—that is, the larger the fire, the slower the rate of re-colonisation.

Post-fire environmental conditions in combination with the proximity of older heaths that act as sources of recruits are also likely to influence the speed of recovery. For example, droughts affect reproductive performance and survival of birds, and hence the ability of the unburnt heaths to provide recruits for re-colonisation of regenerating heaths. Dry periods also affect the growth and survival of heathland plants. So droughts dampen the recovery of these mallee heathlands and their bird populations. The pattern of post-fire recovery, therefore, is unlikely to be identical after every fire for either the plants or the birds.

Are mallee heathland birds evenly distributed over Ngarkat?The abundance and performance of the biological assets within Ngarkat are almost certainly patchily distributed. Particular areas—somewhat paradoxically known as ‘hot spots’—are likely to be much more important for supporting biota than others, especially during periods of drought or stress. This fundamental concept is supported by the results of monitoring birds, mammals and selected plants at Ngarkat since 1990. For example, some sites consistently support more bird species than others and this is independent of time since fire (see graph at left). Greater numbers of species are consistently recorded in some 1 ha (100 m) sections along each transect, while other sections consistently support few species (see maps below).

early post-fire succession: a consequence of an extensive fire in 2002–2003 that burned more than 1800 km2 of mallee heathland. Implementing such a management strategy requires, as a minimum, knowledge of the locations of the key biological assets, and how these vary in space and time.

Ngarkat supports a range of threatened and vulnerable bird species, and these are important assets. Slender-billed Thornbills, despite showing a strong numerical response to heaths during early stages of regeneration, are not likely to be threatened by fire since they are widely distributed and can use a wide range of post-fire heath communities. Our knowledge of the ecological requirements of Mallee Emu-wrens (see p. 24), Red-lored Whistlers and Western Whipbirds in Ngarkat is poor by comparison but in general, fires, particularly extensive fires, are considered a threat.

Lack of knowledge hampers good fire managementAs for most of temperate Australia, there is an urgent need for detailed ecological studies on key fauna to inform and develop sensible fire management in Ngarkat. This lack of detailed information on key assets, and how their performances vary across the landscape and under different prevailing conditions, and not fire per se, are the biggest threats to birdlife in these mallee heath systems. While we lack this basic knowledge, key assets are at risk, and our management of fire will be grossly inadequate and negligent.

David C. Paton, Daniel J. Rogers and Matthew J. Ward are based at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University

of Adelaide, and Jody A. Gates is with the Department of Environment & Heritage

at Berri, South Australia.

Continued overleaf

For Ngarkat the hot spots appear to be centred on areas that receive higher moisture (e.g. near the bases of the eastern/southern faces of sand-hills). These moister areas appear to be more frequent in the western and southern parts of Ngarkat, where annual rainfall is higher, and the terrain hillier. The sizes of hot spots are not well defined and vary from less than a hectare to tens of hectares.

Other taxa show similar patterns with respect to their distribution, abundance and performance. For example, pygmy-possums occupy more habitat areas following several years of good conditions, but in droughts their distributions retract to moister areas. Floral performances of key plants like Banksia ornata (number of inflorescences produced, sizes of inflorescences and nectar production) are higher in moister areas. Although floral production for this species is depressed in drought, the plants in the moister areas always perform better than conspecifics living in poorer areas (e.g. interdunal flats) and have lower rates of plant mortality.

Simple fire management models and strategies that ignore these patterns of distri-bution place at risk the biological assets of a region. If the hot spots were all burnt in one fire, then drought-sensitive taxa have no refuges during droughts, and hence greatly reduced ability to survive in the landscape.

What do we need to know to manage fires and birds in the mallee heathlands of Ngarkat?In fire-prone heaths like those of Ngarkat there are two key components to fire management: (1) reducing the risks of extensive areas being burnt in single fires; and (2) protecting key biological assets from fire, particularly when much of Ngarkat is in early post-fire succession, as is currently the case. This is all the more so because extensive areas of the adjoining Big Desert are also in

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Map of the ever-changing mosaic of major fire scars at Ngarkat between 1945 and 2005.

Some sites support more bird species than others, regardless of time since fire: mean species richness for four sites last burned in 1978 (open bars) and four sites last burned in 1990 (solid bars).

Data show the mean number of species recorded (+ s.e.) during duplicate counts of birds along two 1.5 km x 100 m transects at each site in winter over seven years (1996–2002 inclusive).

Distribution of species richness along the north western transect at Site OO for winter 1991, 1995 and 2000, respectively. The size of each spot is proportional to the number of species detected during duplicate counts for each 100 m section of the 1500 m transect. The darker patches on the image show where the heath vegetation is taller and denser and includes more eucalypts; these areas are on the south-east faces of dunes or in depressions and consistently support more bird species relative to other sites in the same time period.

Above: Burnt (1 month after fire) and unburnt (12 years since fire) heathlands in Ngarkat Conservation Park show the stark contrast in habitat for birds.

Below: Ngarkat Conservation Park often render extensive areas of heathlands temporarily inhospitable for heathland birds. Extensive fires like this in November 2002 threaten the long-term survival of heathland birds. Photos supplied by David Paton

1991 1995 2000

Fire and Birds 23

Top left and right: Variegated Fairy-wren and Rufous Fieldwren. Photos by Lynn Pedler

Fire and Birds 25

In December 1972, wildfire burned all but 100 ha or so of the Nadgee Nature Reserve and much of the adjoining State Forests on the far south coast of New South Wales. Birds were caught up in a firestorm by the thousands and dropped into the sea, to wash up in windrows along the beaches. By any description, the Nadgee fire was an extreme event. In all probability, more than 500,000 birds were killed in Nadgee alone, along with tens of thousands of mammals, reptiles and frogs and countless millions of insects, spiders and other invertebrates. With the fire still burning in logs and hollow trees, a Pallid Cuckoo was found feeding on caterpillars in the blackened moors, and a group of Southern Emu-wrens survived in one of the tiny patches of unburnt vegetation along the Nadgee River, but there wasn’t much else in the way of living birds in the aftermath.

With wildfires like that, it is no wonder that the majority of Australians and the national media regard bushfires with fear. Uncontrolled fires are described as ‘destroying’ the bush, as ‘a holocaust’, and as so devastating that they have to be prevented almost regardless of cost. Yet, within months of the fire, Nadgee was green again and birds had returned. After a few years there was no evidence that any species of plant or animal present before the fire had been lost from the Reserve.

Some birds at Nadgee may have flown over the flames and dropped down onto the burnt country behind the fire front. I’ve seen birds do this during a controlled burn in the Brisbane Waters National Park (BWNP) just north of Sydney. Although fuel loads in the BWNP heath and woodland were high, and flames soared above the tallest trees and shrubs, birds moved easily in front of and above the fire to appear minutes later on the blackened vegetation to feed on less fortunate insects and small lizards. Despite a careful search after the flames had died, we found no dead birds, but the burn was only 20 ha or so in area. As best we could tell over the following years, all the banded birds whose home ranges included the burnt patch survived. With this small fire, it was easy for birds to shift short distances and find suitable habitat in which to feed and shelter. This could not have happened to any extent at the Nadgee fire.

Some birds at Nadgee no doubt escaped the flames by flight and returned from outside the reserve as the fires died and the vegetation regrew or, like the Pallid Cuckoo, found food and shelter in the burnt landscape. However, the rate of recovery of the heath and forest birds was too rapid to be accounted for by the few survivors within the reserve itself. Nadgee had to be recolonised by birds moving in from unburnt country north and south of the reserve.

The source of birds colonising Nadgee has always been a matter of great curiosity for me, but the answer will probably never be known. Not that it isn’t important, but what really matters is that the birds, plants and other animals recovered and recovered rapidly despite the intensity and extent of the blaze. If this tells us one thing about the ecology of fires and birds in Australia, it is that a single fire, regardless of how hot and big it is, need not be a devastating event. I never thought of the Nadgee fire as a ‘holocaust’, despite seeing all the death it brought. Instead, I liked to describe the 1972 fire as a ‘Grand Natural Experiment’—a chance event that allowed us to study how wildfire affected the Australian fauna.

At first my research with Dan Lunney from the then NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service focused on the effects of the fire on a community of small mammals we had been studying at Nadgee since 1968. However, in 1979 I learned that some people in the Service thought the heaths at Nadgee needed to be burnt. Their reasoning, apart from a prevailing notion that uncontrolled wildfires needed to be prevented, was that the heaths had not been burnt for seven years and the regrowth vegetation was no longer suitable for Ground Parrots; an iconic and threatened species restricted

to shrubby, low heathlands along the coast and in high country on the escarpment. Their reasoning made no sense to me, as during our routine sampling of small mammals on the coastal moors at Nadgee we never failed to find Ground Parrots and other heath birds in abundance. I suspected that the alleged demise of Ground Parrots at Nadgee had more to do with a ‘burning’ need to reduce fuel loads to protect people and their property than any demonstrated need to manage heath vegetation for parrots. With the help of the Field Observers Club and staff from the Australian Museum, I therefore conducted a survey of heath birds at Nadgee. The survey was done in the spring of 1979 and demonstrated that not only were Ground Parrots abundant at Nadgee, but so were a full complement of other heath birds, including the Eastern Bristlebird, another threatened species. As far as I knew, the plans to burn the heaths were suspended.

Curiously, in 1980, the Nadgee heaths did burn, but not at the hand of the Service. Human carelessness in forest bordering the reserve led to a fire in October, which affected most of Nadgee. Unlike the 1972 fire, the 1980 fire, although extensive, was not an extreme event and much of the reserve remained unburnt or only lightly scorched. However, all but half of one of the coastal moors did burn intensely. Only the southern half of Impressa Moor escaped burning in 1980 and I decided to monitor the recovery of the heath avifauna on the northern, burnt half of the moor using the southern half as an ‘unburnt control’. Remember, the whole moor burned in 1972.

Recovery of birds on Impressa Moor from the 1980 fire was as rapid as after the 1972 fire, but now we had census data to better describe the pattern of colonisation by birds. In the first year after the fire, Impressa Moor was ‘invaded’ by large numbers of quail, bronzewing pigeons and finches responding both to the seed released after the fire from the burnt heath plants and then to the seed produced by the abundant growth of native grasses. Forest birds were also prominent in the first 12 to 18 months and were obviously taking advantage of the abundance of insects feeding on the luxuriant, and no doubt nutritious, plant growth. However, within two years, the original heathland avifauna had re-established itself and the

numbers of seed-eaters and forest birds had diminished. As the heath grew and the vegetation became taller and denser, with fewer patches of bare soil, birds like the Australian (Richard’s) Pipit declined and disappeared. By 2000, numbers of Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters—another species which forages extensively on the ground—appeared to have fallen, as perhaps had the numbers of Ground Parrots and Striated Fieldwrens, especially in the southern half of the moor where the vegetation was now 28 years post-fire. Also in 2000, several pairs of bristlebirds had established territories: one in post-1972 vegetation and two others in post-1980 vegetation.

It is still too early to be sure of all the changes that have taken place on Impressa Moor since the 1972 and 1980 fires. What is certain is that, after nearly 30 years, both the vegetation and the birds associated with it continue to change in abundance and species composition. Even the sequence of two intense fires within a decade had not led to the loss of any species of bird, plant or other animal from the moor. These observations do lead to some questions about the management of vegetation, birds and fire in Australia’s heaths, forests and woodlands.

First, it is clear that an intense wildfire need not be a disaster for the fauna or the vegetation. Even a second fire relatively soon after the first may not lead to the loss of species, so long as there is a source of colonists nearby. Second, if fire is to be used to manage the birds or other fauna of a heathland or forest, who decides which species are most important? Had Impressa Moor been burnt in 1979 as planned, the reduction in the height and density of the vegetation would have favoured pipits and Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters. A controlled burn in 1979 would probably have neither advantaged nor disadvantaged the local Ground Parrot population, but it would probably have disadvantaged the Eastern Bristlebirds. Bristlebirds appear to need fairly dense and tall thickets that, at least at Nadgee, take some years to develop after fire. Perhaps, what bristlebirds really require is a fire mosaic of relatively mature vegetation of different ages post-burning. These questions remain to be answered, but I can be confident that repeated fuel reduction or hazard reduction burning at relatively short intervals (e.g., 4 to 6 years) can only change the Australian bush to the detriment of a large part of its birdlife.

Harry F. Recher is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Management at Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Western Australia.

BIRDS, FIRE AND NADGEEFor Australia’s south-east forest and heathland birds, not all fires are a disaster, but too frequent burning by land managers can be by Harry F. Recher

Top: The Richard’s Pipit is an early successional species in heathland, arriving soon after fire reduces the height and density of the vegetation. Photo by Dave Watts, Lochman Transparencies

Below Left: Dense, floristically diverse heaths provide ideal habitat for the Eastern Bristlebird: plenty of cover and protection from predators, places to nest and insect prey. The heath shrubs depend on fire to stimulate seed release and germination. Photo by Graeme Chapman

Below: The same heath after fire. Bristlebirds are typically absent in such areas immediately following a bushfire. As the vegetation cover returns so do the Bristlebirds, provided there are neighbouring populations from which the birds can recolonise. Photo by Graeme Chapmanwhich the birds can recolonise. Photo by

Distribution and status of Mallee Emu-wrens in Ngarkat. The figure shows sites where Mallee Emu-wrens were recorded in the 1990s but are no longer present (red spots), sites where they have been recorded in the last 2 years (green spots), and sites where they were recorded in the 1990s but have not been confirmed as still present (yellow spots). The grey background shows areas that have been burnt since November 1997, where the habitat is currently not suitable for Mallee Emu-wrens.

Within Ngarkat the distribution of Mallee Emu-wrens is linked to dense low vegetation provided primarily by patches of Triodia scariosa, often in association with dense patches of Allocasuarina pusilla, and sometimes Xanthorrhoea australis. This habitat is not evenly distributed over the park. For example the larger patches of dense Triodia scariosa are largely restricted to the bases of southern to eastern facing dunes; areas that are likely to get more moisture and be more productive (better growth of plants, higher invertebrate abundances).

Over the last 15 years, combinations of fires and droughts have greatly reduced the distribution and abundance of Mallee Emu-wrens in Ngarkat (see map). These declines are not just due to areas being burnt, because the species has also disappeared from heaths that have not been burnt, and those disappearances have coincided with droughts. Less than 10% of over 100 locations where Mallee Emu-wrens were detected in the 1990s are known to be currently occupied, and then only by small numbers of birds (less than 10). Recent extensive fires have rendered much of Ngarkat temporally unsuitable for these birds, and even when these heaths become suitable structurally it is hard to imagine how the few, small and fragmented populations which remain can re-colonise the now extensive areas of regenerating heaths in Ngarkat and the Big Desert. A fire that burns the few areas currently supporting birds would be tragic. There is clearly a premium to protect the remaining populations of this species from further fires, to give them a chance to recover their distri-bution and abundance by re-colonising areas that are currently unoccupied.

Mallee Emu-wrens: a species in peril

24 Fire and Birds

Mallee Emu-wren. Photo by Graeme Chapman

Birds and Fire in the Mallee Heathlands of Ngarkat continued

26 Fire and Birds Fire and Birds 27

Fire is a natural influence on the majority of Australian terrestrial ecosystems. Yet, inappropriate fire regimes are second only to land clearing as a threat to avifauna in Australia: they have contributed to the extinction of two species and three subspecies of Australian birds and threaten more than 50 others. In south-western Australia, approxi-mately 45% of mammals and birds may be negatively influenced by altered fire regimes. The impacts are not limited to vertebrates; inappro-priate fire regimes threaten almost 20 plant species.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the impacts of fire on the vast majority of Australian organisms remain poorly known. A major and sustained research effort is required to better understand such a key environmental process, particularly given the number of species threatened by fire. Sustaining interest in the research effort is also critical because where there is public concern about fires and fire impacts it is usually short-lived following major fire years.

Identifying appropriate fire regimesAttempts to control or prevent high-intensity fire attract considerable public attention, and there are conflicts between interests, in part because of ongoing expansion of human settlements into areas of flammable and fire-prone native vegetation. The most appropriate fire regime will depend on the objectives of management and the character-istics of the ecosystem. Management may involve both the suppression of unwanted (wild)fires and ignition of prescribed fires. Objectives will vary depending on the proximity of people and property and the relative importance of conservation and water production. This is

complicated by the fact that few (if any) areas have just one economic or ecological value.

Even if biodiversity conservation is the primary management objective, differences between vegetation communities and variation in the fire response of individual elements of the biota (plants and animals) mean that there are no simple recipes. Given such complexity, what can be done? One approach is to vary fire regimes between and within landscapes, creating a range of conditions. Therefore, if unsuitable habitats are created in one area, there will be other places where a species can survive. This is termed risk-spreading. Large parts of some landscapes such as the edges of National Parks bordering grazing properties or urban developments might be subject to frequent low-intensity prescribed burns (as is now done by many organisations such as the New South Wales Department of Environment and Conservation and Parks Victoria). Others more remote from human infrastructure may be burned less frequently and/or less of the area may be burned. Yet others may remain unburned by prescribed fire (although wildfire may still occur).

Two of many key variables influencing the impacts of prescribed fires on biota are fire frequency and the proportion of a landscape burned (i.e. fire extent). Unfortunately, very little is known about how frequent and extensive prescribed fire must be to reduce the risk of wildfire, or about the impacts on biodiversity of varying prescribed fire frequencies and sizes. Such uncertainty highlights the need to record actions and then monitor the response of plants and animals. Observations would be fed back to land managers so that practices could be improved. This is called adaptive management or learning by experiment and monitoring. Despite its potential to improve biodiversity outcomes, it has rarely been used by resource management agencies.

The prescribed burning example outlined above is highly simplified. Landscapes are not homogenous—some areas such as the wet gullies in valley floors are less likely to burn than other places. Patchy burns of varying intensity are not easy in practice. The timing and intensity of burning add further complexity. Such variation may provide opportunities for ‘natural ecological experiments’ and a feedback process to inform management.

Perhaps the best-informed perspective on fire management comes from Malcolm Gill (1999, p. 47), who believes that the management of fire for biodiversity conservation should:

‘... aim at achieving suitable proportions of landscape with a variety of times-since-fire stages within appropriate intensity levels at appropriate times of the year and within appropriate frequency range.’This is an important objective, but it is not easy to achieve because

using fire as a management tool is influenced by many practical constraints, including (in many cases) a limited time window during which prescribed fires can be applied safely, and limited financial and human resources for fire management. Where prescribed burning is difficult or may have negative impacts on some biota, it may be better to use other forms of management, such as grazing. In the case of the threatened Eastern Bristlebird—a species whose habitat requirements encompass multi-layered heathland vegetation—fire exclusion is the most appropriate conservation strategy. However, this may not be possible in some of the areas that support some of the last major populations of the species (such as the Jervis Bay area and Booderee National Park on the south coast of New South Wales) because of nearby human infrastructure.

Given the need for fuel management in these areas, strategic slashing of vegetation has been recommended. In other cases, where prescribed burning is essential, the direction of fire fronts should be planned to provide escape routes for animals, given the limited movement ability of the Eastern Bristlebird. Many of these recommendations have been embraced as part of the management of Eastern Bristlebird habitat, such as that in Booderee National Park. Nevertheless, in late 2003, a major wildfire burned much of the complex multi-layered heathland habitat occupied by the Eastern Bristlebird in Booderee National Park.

David Lindenmayer is a Research Professor at the Centre for Resource and

Environmental Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, and is coordinating a major large-scale ‘natural fire experiment’ at Booderee

National Park.

Acknowledgments Much of this paper is drawn from the textbook Practical Conservation Biology (2005, CSIRO Publishing), co-written with Professor Mark Burgman, and many of the insights come from the Booderee National Park project, which is a collaboration between The Australian National University, Department of Environment and Heritage, Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community, Canberra Ornithologists Group, and Earthwatch Institute. Chris MacGregor, Damian Michael, Mason Crane, Martin Fortescue, Nick Dexter, Matt Hudson and Scott Surridge play pivotal roles in that ongoing project.

Post-fire vegetation management: the case against ‘salvage’ loggingMany ecologists view natural disturbances such as wildfires as key ecosystem processes rather than ecological disasters that require human repair—which is the way they are typically portrayed by the media. Contrary to public perception and media reports, major disturbances can sometimes aid ecosystem restoration by recreating some of the structural complexity and landscape heterogeneity lost through previous management such as intensive forestry. For example, major wildfires can generate significant volumes of dead trees and logs that provide important habitat for birds and other organisms, but are depleted by traditional forestry practices.

In some forests, salvage logging operations following fires are used to harvest fire-damaged timber and pulpwood. These activities can have significant negative impacts on ecosystems and undermine many of the ecological benefits of major disturbances. Ecological impacts of salvage operations can manifest in at least two key ways.

First, there may be major impacts on ecosystem processes. Impaired quality and quantity of water supplied from salvage-logged catchments has been documented in several regions. Second, the removal of large quantities of biological legacies (such as fire-damaged trees) threatens the persistence of some taxa. For example, extensive salvage harvesting after the 1939 wildfires in southern Australia produced a long-lasting shift in cavity-tree resources that was manifested at patch, landscape and regional scales. In that case, salvage harvesting of large, hollow, burned living and dead trees continued for two decades in the wet forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria, and removed critical habitat for cavity-using vertebrates.

The impacts of salvage harvesting indicate a need for large areas, such as national parks, to be exempt from such activities. In addition, wherever salvage harvesting continues, carefully formulated policies are needed to ensure the retention of dead trees, live trees, logs and islands of undisturbed or partially disturbed vegetation.

TOWARDS ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE FIRE MANAGEMENTMore research is vital; in the meantime, a key management objective should be to ensure that, on both small and large scales, the same fire regime is not applied uniformly everywhere by David Lindenmayer

Left: To breed, Glossy Black-Cockatoos are dependent on tree holes in large,

old trees, alive or dead. Salvage logging in the wake of a fire can

remove such trees from the landscape for decades. Photo by Lynn Pedler

Right: Fire in Moreton Island National Park. Photo by Raoul Slater

28 Fire and Birds Fire and Birds 29

Fire is vital to the functioning of Australian ecosystems, and is likely to affect the birds in most habitats. Understanding how fire may affect birds will become increasingly important for conservation in a landscape where habitats are more and more fragmented and degraded, and where climate change is likely to result in very different patterns of fire in the future. Australian researchers have been at the forefront of a revolution in our understanding of fire ecology over the past twenty years. Applying this improved knowledge to management of birds and their habitats is likely to be critical to the survival of several threatened species, such as the Eastern Bristlebird and Ground Parrot, as well as to the viability of many more common species across the landscape.

Fire ecologyUntil quite recently, most research on the impacts of fire on birds in Australian environments has been on single fire events. Because the response of animals and plants varies according to an almost infinite combination of the factors, and to a large degree every fire is unique, it has been difficult to build generalisations or rules that can be used to guide management decisions.

An alternative way of looking at fire ecology is proving more useful. It entails looking at the cumulative impacts of a series of fires, or, if a particular fire is of interest, examining it in context, especially in light of the fires that have gone before it. Documenting and understanding these ‘fire regimes’, as they are termed, was stimulated by seminal work by Malcolm Gill of CSIRO in the mid-1970s. Over the last two decades, it has led to major improvements in our understanding.

The key elements of a fire regime consist of fire frequency, intensity and season. Particular regimes may lead to population declines, and even local extinctions. The basic difference between considering a fire in isolation and considering it in context is illustrated by the following example. In many areas of north-eastern New South Wales and south-eastern Queensland cattle grazing in eucalypt forests is accompanied by very frequent burning in winter by graziers, to promote an open grassy understorey. Any single fire taken on its own is so low in intensity that it has little noticeable impact on the native animals and plants present. However, when taken together, over many decades, these fires cause major changes in the vegetation structure and composition, in turn affecting which animals can survive in these areas.

It is now widely recognised that plants and animals are not ‘adapted to fire’ per se, though they often do possesses characteristics or attributes that enable them to survive particular fire regimes, or to avoid or escape a given fire. This is clearly illustrated by the Heath Banksia, which is

dependent on fire to release seed from its woody cones, but is eliminated from sites burned too often. For nectar-feeding birds, the loss of Heath Banksias and other proteaceous shrubs could be critical.

Fire regimes and fire-sensitive birdsSome birds are recognised as particularly vulnerable to the impacts of a fire event or fire regime (as are some other animals and plants). Typically, fire-sensitive birds are ground-dwelling, cover-dependent, poor fliers, poor dispersers, low in fecundity, or some combination of these. In other words, they lack the characteristics possessed by many other birds that would allow them to avoid, or more rapidly recover from, the effects of fire. In line with our current understanding of fire regimes a more up-to-date and informative terminology could be to specify whether a species is ‘fire-interval sensitive’, ‘fire-intensity sensitive’, and so on. For example, birds that are fire-intensity sensitive or live in a limited or isolated area can be drastically affected by even a single intense fire, which may result in the loss of an entire population.

There are relatively few studies of birds in which the impacts of fire regimes have been considered, although these are becoming more common. An emerging theme is that frequently burnt habitats may not provide the food, cover or nesting resources required by some species. For example, Woinarski and Recher noted that the Rufous-crowned Emu-wren and the Striated Grasswren are restricted to long-unburnt hummock grasslands. In forest environments, frequent fire has been shown to disadvantage species that favour dense, shrubby understorey (such as the Golden Whistler), or thick leaf litter (such as the Pilotbird), while birds that favour open understorey may increase. Grey-crowned Babblers are less abundant in frequently-burnt roadside verges compared to unburnt verges, and this has been attributed to the lack of shrub cover in the former situation.

One of the most comprehensive studies on the effect of a series of fires on birds was carried out by Rowley, Brooker and Russell on the Splendid Fairy-wren. They found that repeated fires reduced the density, productivity and survival of individuals for some years after each fire, and populations thus became dependent on recruitment from outside the area.

Flexible fire managementThe challenge with fire management is to maximise the conservation of biodiversity while protecting human life and property and maintaining natural resource values (e.g. timber) where appropriate. Until recently, fire management has generally been ‘prescriptive’, that is applying a predetermined action according to a fixed set of rules. For example, prescribing the burning of an area of habitat for a threatened species every

FIRE AND FEATHERS: MANAGING FIRE-SENSITIVE BIRDS ON A FLAMMABLE CONTINENTWe are only just beginning to understand and manage fire in all its complexity by Elizabeth Tasker and Jack Baker

15 years, based on the observation that elsewhere the maximum numbers of this bird were found in vegetation of this (post-fire) age. From the point of view of local operational management this may be easy, but there are substantial drawbacks. Prescriptions that are applicable to a particular species in one region at a particular point in time are unlikely to be ‘portable’ to another time, place, species or vegetation type. Fixed prescriptions may have unexpected outcomes for the target species by impacting on its habitat in the longer term, and may negatively affect other species. Prescriptive management also ignores the unpredictability of fire, and the need for population monitoring, arguably one of the simplest and most important conservation management tools available. Often we simply don’t know enough about a species to predict how it will respond.

In contrast, ‘adaptive’ management involves constant review and updating of plans and the actions that are proposed, based on how the fire history of an area has changed since the last plan (e.g. a wildfire may have come through the site) and on research or monitoring showing how the target species are responding to management actions. Adaptive management takes into account that there is insufficient knowledge of how most of the bird species we want to manage will respond to fire, and the need to manage for uncertainty. It also aims to minimise the risk of extinction, rather than maximise densities, a subtle distinction which allows other factors such as habitat maintenance to play a greater role in planning.

The following case studies demonstrate the value of population monitoring and adaptive management for two fire-sensitive bird species, the Ground Parrot and the Eastern Bristlebird, in Barren Ground Nature Reserve, on the escarpment behind Wollongong in New South Wales.

The Ground ParrotThe Ground Parrot occurs in coastal south-eastern and south-western Australia and is listed as threatened nationally as a result of significant habitat loss and increasingly fragmented populations. It survives in its fire-prone habitats by being a strong flier and having a high reproductive output, but is fire-sensitive because it is ground-dwelling, cover-dependent and probably a poor disperser. In general, it requires habitat with

Since 1998, 15 years post-fire, the density of parrots recorded in the census has fluctuated considerably. To complicate the pattern, recent listening (aural) surveys have detected more parrots than the annual censuses (see graph below). Nevertheless, the overall figures suggest a decline in the population which, taken in conjunction with what is known about the ecology of the vegetation on which the parrot depends, indicates that a strategic and carefully planned fire may now be appropriate.

a minimum fire-age of one year for feeding and three years for breeding, and will go locally extinct if there is insufficient time for a breeding population to re-establish between fires. Despite the Ground Parrot being much studied, there remains considerable debate about its response to fire and which fire management is appropriate. It continues to be regarded by some as a species which is dependent on frequent fire to maintain suitable habitat, even though evidence now indicates that this is not necessarily so.

At Barren Grounds approximately 280 ha burned in a bushfire in January 1983. A study was immediately set up by the bird observatory wardens, Richard and Pat Jordan, to census Ground Parrots each year in an 80 ha plot (Redbank Gully) and see how their numbers changed following the fire. Since then, each year in early spring the parrots are counted as they are flushed by a line of ‘beaters’ walking through the heath.

In accordance with various predictive models current at the time, the expectation was that the population would initially rebuild, then gradually decrease over time to zero at about 12 years post-fire. The models assumed that Ground Parrot habitat needed to be burnt quite often in order to keep it suitable. Various proponents had prescribed burning every 6–8, 8–10 or 12 years at Barren Grounds. However, before the prescribed burns could be carried out a wildfire burned much of the habitat, and they were subsequently abandoned. Monitoring since 1983 has demonstrated that the parrots have persisted for almost twice as long as was predicted, in fact they reached maximum density 13 years after the fire (see graph below).

Ground Parrot densities at Redbank Gully, Barren Grounds

0

1

2

3

4

5

0 5 10 15 20 25

Years after the 1983 fire

Parr

ots

per

10

ha

Parrot density from flushing census

Parrot density from calling survey

Ground Parrot densities at Redbank Gully, an 80 ha site, at Barren Grounds following a bushfire in January 1983.

Clockwise from far left:

Frequent low intensity fires can cause major changes to eucalypt forests by eliminating the shrub understorey and favouring an open, grassy groundcover unsuited to many of the original birds. This site has been grazed by cattle and intentionally burnt at regular intervals for about a century. Despite this hazard reduction burning, and low fuel loads, the site still burns intensely in extreme weather. Photos by Pavel German

A backburn is commonly used to finish off a prescribed burn, however, if fire-sensitive, endangered and relatively immobile animals, such as Eastern Bristlebirds, are present they may be trapped between the two fires. In such areas a mechanical method of fuel removal may be preferable. Photo by Pavel German

A low intensity fire, such as this lit by a grazier in north-eastern New South Wales, may appear relatively harmless. However, such fires may not be hot enough to stimulate seed release and/or germination in many native plant species; if repeated at frequent intervals they cause major changes in the species composition and structure of the vegetation. Photo by Pavel German

The Ground Parrot—critically endangered in the west and vulnerable in the east—lives in heathland, a habitat that has been fragmented, making it more vulnerable to fire. Photo by Dave Watts

30 Fire and Birds Fire and Birds 31

The Eastern BristlebirdThe Eastern Bristlebird is a classic fire-sensitive bird and is found only in three widely separated populations in eastern New South Wales. The two largest populations are in the central part of the State—one in the vicinity of Jervis Bay and the other centred on Barren Grounds.

In long-unburnt habitat at Barren Grounds, Jervis Bay and Nadgee, the birds have bred and persisted at high densities for many years. In the three decades to 2002, these habitats were characterised by long intervals between fires, and by fires that burned relatively small areas. Surveys in five different areas of Barren Grounds Reserve, each of which was burnt at a different time, show a clear pattern for bristlebird densities to increase from almost zero immediately following a fire to stable levels of around two birds per 5 ha approximately ten years post fire (see graph below). In December 2003 a wildfire burned more than half of the bristlebird habitat at Jervis Bay. David Bain from the University of Wollongong has been monitoring the recovery of the population, and early results show that intensely burnt areas have suffered the greatest loss of bristlebirds, while in unburnt areas their density has increased. He has also found that the proximity of refuges to burnt areas has been important for survival.

Paradoxically, although the Eastern Bristlebird (like the Ground Parrot) is fire-sensitive, it depends on habitats that are very flammable and fire-dependent, and have many plant species that need fire to stimulate flowering, seed production, seed release and/or germination. So, it is important to determine the range of fire regimes under which not only bristlebirds do well, but also the vegetation on which they depend. Recent guidelines produced by the Department of Environment and Conser-vation (NSW) suggest maximum and minimum intervals between fires that will maintain the diversity within different broad vegetation types. Such intervals could be used as a starting point to guide fire management for this species, modified by feedback from monitoring of bird numbers in the areas being managed. We are currently undertaking a review and synthesis of this information for the bristlebird.

Given its rarity and highly fragmented habitat—often there will not be adjacent populations from which birds can recolonise following a major fire—management must take into account the extremely fire-sensitive nature of the Eastern Bristlebird. In the event of unplanned fires, protection of areas with important concentrations of bristlebirds, as well as fire refuges, should be a priority. In fuel-reduction zones around human property that are in bristlebird habitat, strategic slashing and/or trittering should be used instead of frequent burning to reduce fuel loads. If prescribed burns do need to be carried out, ameliorative measures can be adopted. The usual practice to finish off a prescribed burn is to carry out backburning. However, such a practice is likely to block the escape route for Eastern Bristlebirds and cause high mortality. As an alternative, where it is intended to use a burnt area to stop a prescribed burn, this area could be burnt several days previously, or mechanical fuel reduction methods used instead.

Practical application of adaptive management for fire-sensitive birdsTo list hard and fast rules for the management of fire-sensitive birds would be contrary to the principles of adaptive management. Conser-vation managers often need to make decisions about fire without having detailed information about the fire-sensitive populations they are managing, and are often faced with small and/or declining populations in fragmented habitats. In such cases, the following generalisations may be useful guidelines:

1) The extent of a single fire should be small relative to the total amount of habitat;

2) Fire should not be prescribed at a fixed interval in any given area; 3) The need to apply fire to create appropriate habitat for a species

should be reviewed in terms of population monitoring in the area, and in terms of long-term maintenance of the habitat;

4) Plan to protect refuge areas for fire-sensitive species.We believe there are three key tools to implement successful fire

management of fire-sensitive birds: • Monitoring of the population of concern; • Documentation of the fire history of the site;• Application of what is known from the field of vegetation ecology

to manage the food resources and habitat of the birds over time. Monitoring may involve considerable resources—the Ground

Parrot study involved approximately 50 volunteers each year for 3 hours, repeated over 21 years, giving a total of more than 3,000 ‘volunteer hours’ (not including travel time or costs). However, less labour-intensive alternatives may be available. The Ground Parrot has such a distinctive call that novices can be trained to recognise its call in less than an hour, making aural surveys feasible.

Fires are now mapped for all national parks and reserves in New South Wales, using a Geographical Information System, and this easily allows the fire history of an area to be analysed and regularly updated, and for sophisticated fire planning to be carried out.

Finally, use of guidelines, such as those produced by scientists from the Department of Environment and Conservation on the fire frequency thresholds of different vegetation types, coupled with what is known of the habitat requirements of species, such as the Ground Parrot and Eastern Bristlebird, will allow greatly improved management, understanding, and—ultimately—conservation of fire-sensitive birds across the landscape.

Liz Tasker and Jack Baker work in the Biodiversity Conservation Science Section of the Department of Environment and Conservation, New South

Wales. Liz is with the Fire Ecology Unit and has a PhD in fire ecology from the University of Sydney. Jack is a former warden of Barren Grounds Bird Observatory, where he first met Eastern Bristlebirds and Ground Parrots.

AcknowledgmentsMany volunteers assisted with the annual Ground Parrot census. The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and Barren Grounds Bird Observatory facilitated its organisation.

Ashby E 1924 Notes on extinct or rare Australian birds, with suggestions as to some of the causes of their disappearance. Part 1. Emu 23: 178–183.

Baker J & Whelan RJ 1994 Ground Parrots and fire at Barren Grounds, New South Wales: A long-term study and an assessment of management implications. Emu 94: 300–304.

Baker J 2000 The Eastern Bristlebird: cover-dependent and fire-sensitive. Emu 100: 286–298.

Baker R 2003 Yanyuwa classical burning regimes, Indigenous science and cross-cultural communication. Pp. 198–204 in G. Cary, D. Lindenmayer & S. Dovers (eds) Australia Burning: Fire Ecology, Policy and Management Issues. CSIRO Publishing; Melbourne.

Bowman DMJS 1998 The impact of Aboriginal landscape burning on the Australian biota. New Phytologist 140: 373–381.

Bradstock RA, Williams JE & Gill AM (eds) 2002 Flammable Australia. The Fire Regimes and Biodiversity of a Continent. Cambridge University Press; Melbourne.

Braithwaite RW & Estbergs J 1987 Fire-birds of the Top End. Australian Natural History 22: 299–302.

Brooker LC & Brooker MG 1994 A model for the effects of fire and fragmentation on the population viability of the Splendid Fairy-Wren. Pacific Conservation Biology 1: 344–358.

Burbidge AH 2003 Birds and fire in the Mediterranean climate of south-west Western Australia. Pp. 321–347 in I Abbott and N Burrows (eds) Fire in Ecosystems of South-west Western Australia: Impacts and Management. Backhuys; Leiden.

Burrows N 2003 Using and sharing Indigenous knowledge. Pp. 205–218 in G Cary, D Lindenmayer & S Dovers (eds) Australia Burning: Fire Ecology, Policy and Management Issues. CSIRO Publishing; Melbourne.

Cary G, Lindenmayer DB & Dovers S (eds) 2003 Australia Burning. Fire Ecology, Policy and Management Issues. CSIRO Publishing; Melbourne.

Crowley GM & Garnett ST 2000 Changing fire management in the pastoral lands of Cape York Peninsula of northeast Australia, 1623 to 1996. Australian Geographic Studies 3: 10–26.

Dovers, S 2003 Uncertainty, environment and fire: research and policy issues. Pp. 41–50 in G Cary, D Lindenmayer & S Dovers (eds) Australia Burning: Fire Ecology, Policy and Management Issues. CSIRO Publishing; Melbourne.

Dyer R, Jacklyn P, Partridge I, Russell-Smith J & Williams R (eds) 2001 Savanna Burning: Understanding and Using Fire in Northern Australia. Tropical Savannas CRC; Darwin.

Ecological Society of Australia. ESA Position Statement: The Use of Fire in Ecosystem Management. www.ecolsoc.org.au

Fraser F, Lawson V, Morrison S, Christopherson P, McGreggor S & Rawlinson M 2003 Fire management experiment for the declining Partridge Pigeon, Kakadu National Park. Ecological Management and Restoration 4: 93–101.

Garnett S & Crowley G 2002 The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2000. Environment Australia, Canberra & Birds Australia, Melbourne.

Gill AM 1999 Biodiversity and bushfires: an Australia-wide perspective on plant-species changes after a fire event. Pp. 9–53 in AM Gill, JCZ Woinarski & A York (eds) Australia’s Biodiversity—Responses to Fire. Environment Australia Biodiversity Technical Paper 1.

Harrington G & Sanderson K 1994 Recent contraction of wet sclerophyll forest boundary in the wet tropics of Queensland due to invasion by rainforest. Pacific Conservation Biology 1: 319–327.

Haynes CD 1985 The pattern of munwag: Traditional Aboriginal fire regimes in north-central Arnhemland. Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia 13: 203–214.

Howitt W 1856 Black Thursday. Household Words, London, 10 May 1856, pp. 388–395.

Jones R 1969 Fire-stick farming. Australian Natural History 16: 224–228.Keith D, Williams J & Woinarski J 2002 Fire management and biodiversity conser-

vation: key approaches and principles. Pp. 401–425 in R Bradstock, J Williams & AM Gill (eds) Flammable Australia. The Fire Regimes and Biodiversity of a Continent. Cambridge University Press; Cambridge.

Kenny B, Sutherland L, Tasker E & Bradstock R 2004 Guidelines for Ecologically Sustainable Fire Management. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service; Hurstville.

Lindenmayer DB, Foster D, Franklin JF, Hunter M, Noss R, Schiemegelow F & Perry D 2004 Salvage harvesting after natural disturbance. Science 303: 1303.

Loyn R 1997 Effects of wildfire on birds in far eastern Victoria. Pacific Conservation Biology 3: 221–234.

Morton A, Presland G & Gibson M (eds) 2004 Fire Symposium Special Issue 2004. Victorian Naturalist 121 (3).

O’Neill AL, Head LM & Marthick JK 1993 Integrating remote sensing and spatial analysis techniques to compare Aboriginal and pastoral fire patterns in the East Kimberley, Australia. Applied Geography 13: 67–85.

Pedler L 1997 Fire and Striated Grasswrens in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Pp. 91–93 in LG Woodcock (ed) Proceedings of ‘Back to the Future’ Natural Resources Research Workshop, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, 2729 August 1997. AGSO Record 1997/55. AGSO; Canberra.

Press AJ 1988 Comparisons of the extent of fire in different land management systems in the top end of the Northern Territory. Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia 15: 167–175.

Reid J 1997 Uluru fauna surveys: baseline, monitoring, long-term research and new lines of inquiry. Pp. 94–109 in LG Woodcock (ed) Proceedings of ‘Back to the Future’ Natural Resources Research Workshop, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, 27–29 August 1997. AGSO Record 1997/55. AGSO; Canberra.

Richards SA, Possingham HP & Tizard J 1999 Optimal fire management for maintaining community diversity. Ecological Applications 9: 880–892

Rossiter NA, Setterfield SA, Douglas MM & Hutley LB 2003 Testing the grass-fire cycle: alien grass invasion in the tropical savannas of northern Australia. Diversity and Distributions 9: 169–176.

Russell EM & Rowley I 1993 Demography of the cooperatively breeding Splendid Fairy-wren, Malurus splendens (Maluridae). Australian Journal of Zoology 41: 475–505.

Russell-Smith J 2002 Pre-contact Aboriginal and contemporary fire regimes of the savanna landscapes of northern Australia: patterns, changes and ecological consequences. In J. Russell-Smith, R. Craig, A.M. Gill, R. Smith & J. Williams (eds) Australian Fire Regimes: Contemporary Patterns and Changes Since European Settlement. www.deh.gov.au/soe/techpapers/fire/

Russell-Smith J, Craig R, Gill AM, Smith R & Williams J 2002 Australian fire regimes: contemporary patterns (April 1998–March 2000) and changes since European settlement. Australia: State of the Environment Second Technical Paper Series (Biodiversity), Series 2. Department of the Environment and Heritage http: www.deh.gov.au/soe/techpapers/fire/index.html

Russell-Smith J, Whitehead PJ, Cook GD & Hoare JL 2003 Response of Eucalyptus-dominated savanna to frequent fires: lessons from Munmarlary, 1973–1996. Ecological Monographs 73: 349–375.

SEQFBC 2002 Fire and Biodiversity Monitoring Manual: A Guide for Local Field Officers and Land Managers. Southeast Queensland Fire and Biodiversity Consortium & Greening Australia Queensland.

Sharp BR & Bowman DMJS 2004 Net woody vegetation increase confined to seasonally inundated lowlands in an Australian tropical savanna, Victoria River District, Northern Territory. Austral Ecology 29: 667–683.

Smith G 2004 Distribution and Habitat Requirements of Mallee Emu-wren (Stipiturus mallee) within the 1990 Fire Scar of Ngarkat Conservation Park: Towards a Habitat Suitability Model. B.Sc. (Hons) thesis, University of Adelaide.

Smith LH 1988 Life of the Lyrebird. Heinemann, Richmond.Ward MJ & Paton DC 2004 Responses to fire of Slender-billed Thornbills Acanthiza

iredalei hedleyi in Ngarkat Conservation Park, South Australia. 1. Densities, group sizes, distribution and management issues. Emu 104: 157–168.

Whelan RJ 2002 Managing fire regimes for conservation and property: an Australian response. Conservation Biology 16: 1659–1661.

Whitehead PJ, Bowman DMJS, Preece N, Fraser F & Cooke P 2003 Customary use of fire by Indigenous peoples in northern Australia: its contemporary role in savanna management. International Journal of Wildland Fire 12: 415–425.

Williams RJ, Woinarski JCZ & Andersen AN 2003 Fire experiments in northern Australia: lessons for ecology, management and biodiversity conservation. Interna-tional Journal of Wildland Fire 12: 391–402.

Woinarski J & Recher H 1997 Impact and Response: a review of the effects of fire on the Australian avifauna. Pacific Conservation Biology 3: 183–205.

Woinarski JCZ 1999 Fire and Australian birds: a review. Pp. 55–111 in AM Gill, JCZ Woinarski & A York (eds) Australia’s Biodiversity—Responses to Fire, Plants, Birds and Invertebrates. Biodiversity Technical Paper No. 1. Environment Australia; Canberra.

Woinarski JCZ, Brock C, Fisher A, Milne D & Oliver B 1999 Response of birds and reptiles to fire regimes on pastoral land in the Victoria River District, Northern Territory. The Rangeland Journal 21: 24–38.

Woinarski JCZ, Risler J & Kean L 2004 The response of vegetation and vertebrate fauna to 23 years of fire exclusion in a tropical Eucalyptus open forest, Northern Territory, Australia. Austral Ecology 29: 156–176.0

1

2

3

0 5 10 15 20

Years after fire

Den

sity

of

bir

ds

per

5 h

a

19911988198319801979

Eastern Bristlebird densities between 1992 and 1998 at five areas in Barren Ground Nature Reserve where the most recent fires had occurred, in 1991, 1988, 1983, 1980 and 1979.

FURTHER READINGFire is the main threat to the few, isolated, remaining populations of the endangered Eastern Bristlebird (southern subspecies), considered to be a fire-sensitive bird but with habitat that is dependent on fire for its maintenance.

Photo by Graeme Chapman

32 Fire and Birds

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AcknowledgementsBirds Australia thanks the R.E. Ross Trust for their generosity in funding this important publication. We are also particularly grateful to the following individuals who made time in their busy schedules to write the narratives that are the foundation of this report: Grant Allan, Jack Baker, Allan Burbidge, Sarah Comer, Gabriel Crowley, Alan Danks, Jody Gates, Sarah Legge, David Lindenmayer, Steve Murphy, David Paton, Nat Raisbeck-Brown, Harry Recher, Julian Reid, Daniel Rogers, Liz Tasker, Peter Thompson, Matthew Ward and John Woinarski. Mike Clarke, Peter Menkhorst, Jim McGuire and Bruce Quin contributed boxed text. Sarah Comer, Alan Danks, Leon Keasey and Greg Holland (www.birdphotos.com.au), Jonathan Munro (www.wildwatch.com.au), Steve Murphy, David Paton, Lynn Pedler, Will Philippiadis, Don Royal and Raoul Slater kindly allowed free use of their photographs.

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Key Points 2

Overview 3

Living with Fire—Birds in Northern Australiaby John Woinarski 7

Mornington: A Model for Fire Management in Australia’s Tropical Savannasby Steve Murphy, Sarah Legge and Nat Raisbeck-Brown 10

Managing Perceptionsby Gabriel Crowley and Peter Thompson 12

Fire and its Management at Newhaven Reserve: Taking a Regional Approach by Grant Allan 15

Bushfire Management in the Northern Territoryby Grant Allan 16

Fire and Birds in Spinifex Grasslandsby Julian Reid 17

Threatened Birds and Wildfire in South-West Western Australiaby Allan Burbidge, Sarah Comer and Alan Danks 18

Birds and Fire in the Mallee Heathlands of Ngarkatby David C. Paton, Daniel J. Rogers, Matthew J. Ward and Jody A. Gates 21

Birds, Fire and Nadgeeby Harry F. Recher 24

Towards Ecologically Sustainable Fire Managementby David Lindenmayer 26

Fire and Feathers: Managing Fire-Sensitive Birds on a Flammable Continentby Elizabeth Tasker and Jack Baker 28

Further Reading 31

CONTENTS

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Front cover: One of 14 Black Falcons attracted to a stubble fire at Riverton, South Australia, along

with two Australian Hobbies, four Brown Falcons and a few Black Kites, within 20 minutes of

ignition. Photo by Nicholas Birks

Kites and firefighters attracted to a Northern Territory grass fire. Photo by Rob Gray

Copyright: Reproduction in whole or part may only occur with the written permission of the Editor. ISSN: 1036-7810