Managing fire regimes in Tumut Shire, Australia

Indicator: Managing fire regimes

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What the results tell us for Tumut

See also: | Changed fire regimes | Native species |

A Bush Fire Risk Management Plan is in preparation.

The Draft Plan states: "The Tumut Council area has a rich diversity of flora. Many threatened species (as listed by the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995) are known to occur in the District."

A Regional Vegetation Management Plan (under the Native Vegetation Conservation Act) is being drafted at the time of writing, which examines the ecological requirements for various threatened species. Various fauna and flora species listed under the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 have either been recorded, or have a habitat preference which matches components of the Tumut district environment, see Table 1. Knowledge of the fire ecology of these species is incomplete, and requires further study.

Table 1. Threatened Species (*Endangered - Schedule 1 Vulnerable - Schedule 2*).
Fauna species	Status under TSC Act	Habitat Type
Striped Legless Lizard Delma impar	Vulnerable	Grassland dependent
Pink-tailed Worm Lizard Aprasia parapulchella	Vulnerable	Grassland with rocky outcrops
Heath Monitor Varanus rosenbergi	Vulnerable	Wooded ridges in hollows/crevices
Northern Corroboree Frog Pseudophryne pengilleyi	Vulnerable	Sub-alpine semi-permanent pools and seepages
Southern Corroboree Frog Pseudophryne corroboree	Endangered	Sub-alpine semi-permanent pools and seepages
Regent Honeyeater Xanthomyza phrygia	Endangered	Temperate eucalypt woodland and open forest
Painted Honeyeater Grantiella picta	Vulnerable	Woodlands with Mistletoes food source
Superb Parrot Polytelis swainsonii	Vulnerable	Box-Ironbark Woodlands, seeding pasture grasses
Swift Parrot Lathamus discolor	Vulnerable	Woodlands
Tiger Quoll Dasyurus maculatus	Vulnerable	Range of habitat types. Recorded in Red Stringybark open forest in Tumut State Forest
Long-footed Potoroo Potorous longipes	Endangered	Moist forests with dense understorey
Broad-toothed Rat Mastacomys fuscus	Vulnerable	Sub-alpine with dense ground cover of grasses/sedges/shrubs, often close to streams.
Smoky Mouse Pseudomys fumeus	Endangered	Ridge top sclerophyll with diverse understorey of heath, especially with legumes, ie as with post fire succession.
Yellow-bellied Glider Petaurus australis	Vulnerable	Dry woodlands, especially Apple Box as nectar trees
Koala Phascolarctus cinereus	Vulnerable	Communities with River Red Gum, Ribbon Gum, Brittle Gum, Red Stringybark, White Box and Scribbly Gum
Greater Broad-nosed Bat Scoteanax ruppellii	Vulnerable	Open woodland and forest below 500m
Large Bent-wing Bat Miniopterus schreibersii	Vulnerable	Well timbered valleys
Powerful Owl Ninox strenua	Vulnerable	Forests and woodlands, extending over margins of partially cleared land
Striated Field Wren Calamanthus fuliginosus	Vulnerable	Areas with low vegetation with incomplete canopy
Pink Robin Petroica rodinogaster	Vulnerable	Lowland scrubs and woodland
Olive Whistler Pachycephala olivacea	Vulnerable	Mountain scrubs above 500m
Tumut Grevillea Grevillea wilkonsonii	Endangered	Riparian bushland on skeletal soils. Known only from 4 km stretch along Goobarragandra River, east of Tumut.
Pomaderris Pomaderris cotoneaster	Endangered	Dry riparian woodland. Thin rocky soils on south-west aspects.
Austral Toadflax Thesium australe	Vulnerable	Grassland/woodland, often in damp sites.

As more information becomes available through the National Register for the Fire Responses of Plant Species being developed by CSIRO Division of Plant Industries (Gill and Bradstock 1992) and other fire ecology research, specific guidelines for flora conservation of individual species can be developed.

In the absence of specific information, the precautionary approach will generally be applied which adopts a fire regime that initially considers the risk to life and property and then takes account of specific environmental requirements. The precautionary approach adopted does not necessarily or automatically exclude fire. There is insufficient evidence in many cases to assess the impact of not maintaining existing fire regimes, and thus the precautionary approach is to not change current practice until the impacts of doing so are assessed.

The Tumut Shire Council area has a large number of threatened fauna species. In considering the impact of wildfire and prescribed burning it is important to recognise that many forests experience fire very infrequently and only in times of very severe drought.

Low intensity prescribed fire is largely restricted to areas of dry eucalypt forest, woodlands and some heathland areas. Fuel management in localised areas will have an impact on some species of wildlife, with those depending on a dense understorey of shrubs being the most likely to be adversely affected. In many situations the development of dense shrub layers in areas of dry forest been strongly influenced by recent human influence in suppressing fires that may have otherwise burned into such areas. In the longer term, in dry eucalypt forests, frequent fire may favour replacement of shrub and regrowth eucalypt communities with grassland disadvantaging shrub dependent species. Whilst adversely affecting shrub dependant species, the promotion of ground forage favours some species which prefer forest with an open grassy understorey condition such as some macropods.

About the data

Comments were extracted from Tumut Rural Fire Service Draft Bush Fire Risk Management Plan, May 2000.

Description: What does 'managing fire regimes' measure?

Which data are collected?

type and conservation status of species identified for protection in Fuel Management Plans, relative to existence and location of threatened species/communities
area (in hectares and proportion of total area) covered by trained fire crews for each landuse and vegetation type
practices in place to manage controlled burns to ensure maximum fuel reduction and minimum unintended consequences

Why do we report this indicator?

Fire regimes can be managed for two different, and sometimes incompatible, objectives:

protection and maintenance of native species and ecosystems
protection of human life and property.

For example, fuel reduction burns in remote areas are more likely to be of a frequency and intensity that meets biodiversity conservation objectives than are fuel reduction burns in or near urban areas. The reason for this is the greater concerns for air pollution, aesthetics, and the risk to human life and property in human settlements.

Fuel Management Plans provide a framework for managing fire regimes using strategies such as: assessing fire hazard, maintaining fire trials, fuel reduction (by burning, mowing or grazing), and developing approaches to controlling wildfires. Plans developed for areas of conservation value generally identify native species that require special protection, particularly if they are threatened or endangered. The inclusion or otherwise of these species and communities provides an indication of the value placed on conservation in the Plans.

Bushfire control in the Region is undertaken by paid fire crews as well as volunteer bushfire crews. The area covered by these crews indicates the capacity of the community to respond to emergency bushfire situations, as well as the capacity to act to manage fire and fuel loads to prevent bushfire emergencies.

Managing fire regimes is of concern to State of the Environment reporting because it is one response to reducing the pressure of changed fire regimes on native species and ecosystems.