Nearly half of Wilsons Promontory burnt due to CFA neglect

The same bloke who was in charge of the last big (burning off) fire is in charge of this fire (started by lightening but then left to roar) Why was he allowed to stay in the job? The animals that live in the burned area have no-where to go. The place is surrounded by farmland and sea. Has anyone been there lately? Hardly any animals to see, even at night. It makes me %^#)(* angry!

Studies on fire ecology in Australia are plentiful and have produced a lot of knowledge on fauna responses. I guess what is important to consider is the fire regime rather than individual fire events (like the 2009 fires). Studies on fire regimes (a fire history including differences in severity, season and frequency) are still a little limited due to fires only being mapped effectively for around the past 30 years and also the infrequency of fires in certain vegetation types. The important component of the fire regime for biodiversity conservation would be the frequency as if fires become too frequent biodiversity loss will occur due to an inability of obligate seeder species to set sufficient seed or in the case of fauna, non mobile species that breed slowly getting 'hit for six' too frequently. There are a number of studies that have occurred throughout Australia on fauna recovery post fire yet unfortunately control impact studies (where monitoring had occurred before and after wildfire) are a little scarce. One of the most famous studies have occurred in the heathland of Nadgee Nature Reserve since the early 1970s by Dan Lunney, Harry Recher and other associates with monitoring mainly concentrating on small mammal populations. The area experienced a high severity wildfire in 1972 (2 years into the study) and a low severity wildfire in 1980 with no fires since. Small mammals have been continuously sampled on the site since 1972 and their population trends are summarised by Recher et al in the current issue of Wildlife Research. While undertaking his PhD at the Myall Lakes in northern NSW, Barry Fox's study site experienced a wildfire thus presenting a nice opportunity to document small mammal recovery post fire (documented in papers in the early 1980s with one in Ecology in 1982 if my memory serves rightly). The conclusion to these studies from infrequent high intensity wildfires in heathlands (ie 'flammable environments') is that populations of common species such as Brown Antechinus/ Agile Antechinus and Bush Rat/ Swamp Rat peak at around 7 years post fire and decline thereafter. Having said that several 'threatened' rodent species (New Holland Mouse and Eastern Chestnut Mouse) reach a maximum population density within 2-3 years post fire and decline thereafter and are probably threatened by infrequent fire. Several reviews on small mammal fire ecology have been completed, for example Liz Sutherland and Chris Dickman in Wildlife Research around 1999/00 but I would also have a look at Peter Catling's critisism/ critique of frequent hazard reduction burning in the 1st edition of The Conservation of Australia's Forest Fauna (ed D Lunney, published by the RZS NSW). More importantly I suppose for the victorian Mountain Ash/ Alpine Ash/ Messmate forests and fire recovery a great deal of work has documented the requirement of these communities of infrequent high severity fire (ie crown fire) to regeneration (ie to stop them becoming rainforests). Dave Ashton completed a PhD around Kinglake in around 1964 and Malcolm Gill (CSIRO) has worked extensively on the ecology of Alpine Ash. Anyway back to fauna responses. Brendan Mackey, David Lindenmayer and associates published a book by CSIRO publishing in around 2001/02 called Wildlife, fire and future climate based on fire ecology of Mountain Ash. This book might be out of print but good uni and TAFE libraries should have a copy. It contains details of modelling of mountain ash hollow dynamics post fire and lots on the leadbeater's possum, a bit of a conservation paradigm as it requires hollows but also Acacia in the understorey thus fire events are good but also bad. There have been a number of studies in Mountain Ash and other recently burnt vegetation types, for example one in Wildlife Research by van der Ree and Loyn (from around 2000) that compared Greater Glider and Small Eared Possum abundance among sites last burned in 1939 in comparison to those last burned in 1983. There were more Greater Gliders in 1939 sites yet due to a lack of fire severity work I wouldnt conclude anything further on it. So I guess in conclusion with fires there are winners and their are losers. Certain species are sensitive to frequent fire while others relish frequent fire. Unfortunately we cant cater to all species with single fire regimes and at best we can probably only cater to species that are easiest to monitor, represent the greatest ecological importance or are flagship species (ie cute and cuddly). Cheers Chris McLean Centre for the Risk Management of Bushfires University of Wollongong