This presentation by Mick Wilson of Forestry Corporation NSW discusses case studies of burns and the experiences of fire management in Forestry lands presented, highlighting the challenges of resuscitating a fuel management programme within a complex regulatory framework. Presentation from Nature Conservation Council of NSW 2015 Bushfire Conference - Fire and Restoration: working with fire for healthy land

1. NCC Fire & Restoration
The Challenges of resuscitating a
fuel management program in a
complex regulatory framework
Mick Wilson,
Justin Williams, Nick Bush, and Mark Drury

2. Typical Strategic Objectives
Up to 1996 Forestry Commission managed about 8 Million ha……
down to 2 Million Hectares by 2003
Mid North Coast Forest Protection Area = 360,000ha
Fuel and Fire Management Objectives Land Management Objectives
Reduce wildfire risk Maintain or enhance biodiversity or
cultural heritage
Protect life and property Protect soil and water values
Improve fire-fighter safety Maintain Carbon stores
Protect wildlife from damaging affects of
wildfire
Protect Scenic values
Maintain natural or appropriate fire
regimes
Provide for Recreation
Keep fire from travelling off estate Protect Timber values
Minimise smoke and health risks Protect stock and infrastructure

7. Example Problems
1. Mega-fire phenomenon in Southern Australia
and west coast continental states.
2. High-intensity, late season fires in northern
Australia.
3. Rainforest expansion in northern tropics
4. Understorey thickening, dieback and
biodiversity impacts in eastern NSW and Qld.
5. Frequent, high-intensity fire regime in coastal
heathlands

8. Coastal Forests NSW - Example
Area burnt by wildfire increasing, area burnt
by prescribed fire decreasing since 80s
Grassy forests declining
Bell-Miner Associated Dieback affected forests
increasing
Limited HR burning resources and window
Expectations to do more burning high
Current constraints on HR limit ability to
address problem

9. Environmental Legislation Fire Management
Legislation pertaining to State Forests in NSW
Environmental Planning & Assessment Act
3 Possible Pathways for Forestry
BFEAC
All tenure
IFOA
Native State Forest
P & R
Code
Plantations

10. Integrated Forestry Operations
Approval (logging)
Advantages Disadvantages
Best Management Practices for Roads and
Trails
Harvesting exclusions are also burn
exclusions – burning of old growth or
corridors and other flammable
communities not permitted
Fire regime intervals do not apply May not allow for practical burn
boundaries
Do not need to issue a certificate No coverage for burning Endangered
Ecological Communities
Surveys not required
Base net area map is basically a burn
exclusion map

11. Practical Solutions

12. Bushfire Code
Advantages Disadvantages
Less burn exclusions Certificate process clumsy – for a Land
Management Agency with already
sophisticated planning systems and
highly skilled practitioners
Not a specified forestry activity and not
audited – less compliance risk
Many long fire intervals in conflict with
long standing science of fuel
accumulation and fire behaviour
Coverage for burning EECs Not all threatened species and
communities listed so there are grey
areas in terms of coverage for those
Clear intent to encourage planned,
prescribed fire
Some prescriptions loose, some quite
tough – enforcement risk
Does not have practical conditions for
fire trail maintenance work
NO COVERAGE FOR ECOLOGICAL
BURNING

13. Mixophyes balbus & M. Iteratus
BFEAC – 100m on all streams
IFOA – 30m buffer on streams within 200m of the
record
Prescriptions

14. “The science of Fuel Accumulation is KNOWN!”
Wilson et al – last Night
Source: McCaw, Forest Ecology and Management 2013; Based on dry fuel conditions and moderate to high FFDI
Intensity that
wildfire
can be controlled

15. Nor a habitat management outcome
Source: Hollis et al, Forest Ecology and Management 2011

16. Using Weather Parameters
Fire Parameters Target Fire Parameters Target
Wind speed <15km/hr Wind Direction(s) N/A
FDI <10 BKDI <100
FMC Dry 10 - 16% FMC Wet >20%
Head Fire ROS <60m/hr
Relative Humidity >40
FMC Elevated >10%
Temperature <280 C
Flame height 1-2 m
Rate Of Spread of Test burn (15 minutes) Spot Ignition Spacing
2.5 metres 20 metres
5.0 metres 40 metres
7.5 metres 60 metres

17. The Challenge of Containment

18. LiDAR – Heavy Understorey

19. Bell Miner Dieback

20. Containment

21. Understanding the problem
•Have we described the problem by?
•Landscape Tenure
•Vegetation community Location (risk)
•Interaction with scale, tenure and land management
objectives
•Is the problem getting worse?
•What are the potential solutions?
•How quickly do we need to act?

23. Eden Burning Study Area
Patchiness of burning in
Dry Shrub Forest
L- Logged; U – Unlogged
F – Frequent (2years); R – Routine (4 years)
Mean Coupe Size – 32 ha

24. Plot Level Burning
at Eden
Source: Penman et al ; Forest Ecology
and Management 2007

25. BFEAC Tolerable Fire Intervals for Moist Blackbutt Forests
NSW - Minimum Interval 30 years (full stop) !
Queensland
SEASON: Summer to winter.
INTENSITY: Plan for low to moderate. Unplanned occasional high intensity wildfire
will occur.
INTERVAL: 4-8 years maintains a healthy grassy system. 8-20 years for shrubby
elements of understorey.
STRATEGY: Aim for 40-60% mosaic burn. Needs disturbance to maintain RE
structure (eucalypt overstorey with open understorey of predominantly non-rainforest
species).
ISSUES: Frequent fire is needed to maintain understorey integrity, keeping more mesic species low in the profile of the
understorey so that other species can compete. However, rainforest invasion is only a problem in moister forest south of the
Logan River. North of the Logan River around Venman Reserve this RE occurs at higher elevation and is drier. Burning regimes
will need to be adjusted according to location. High fuel loads develop within a short period of time owing to bark drop. High
intensity fires occur periodically through time, however frequent low to moderate intensity fires will create the disturbance
required to keep the understorey diverse. A follow-up burn soon after a high intensity wildfire can be considered to reduce
germinating mesic species. This 'endangered' RE may contain a high number of rare and threatened plant species which require
appropriate fire management.

26. Biodiversity - Mosaics or Functional Response
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
sprouters all plants litter dwellers ants
burnt
unburnt
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Only in burnt
plots
Only in
unburnt plots
More
frequent in
burnt plots
More
frequent in
unburnt plots
Obligate seeder
Resprouter
Total
Bulls Ground Study:
Identified differences in
vegetation structure and
community composition
for both plants and
invertebrates
Biodiversity in these
groups maximised by
presence of both fire
regimes

27. Species in Unburnt Sites Common Name Form
Frequency from 77
landscape surveys
Cissus hypoglauca Native Grape Vine 86%
Pandorea pandorana Wonga Vine Vine 79%
Schizomeria ovata Crab-apple RF Tree/Shrub 65%
Smilax glyciphylla Sarsaparilla Vine 64%
Gymnostachys anceps Settler's Flax Grass 56%
Notelaea longifolia Mock Olive RF Tree/Shrub 56%
Glochidion ferdinandi Cheese Tree RF Tree/Shrub 55%
Parsonsia straminea Common Silk-pod Vine 44%
Eustrephus latifolius Wombat Berry Vine 43%
Morinda jasminoides Morinda Vine 38%
Acmena smithii Lilly Pilli RF Tree/Shrub 27%
Psychotria loniceroides Hairy Psychotria RF Tree/Shrub 27%
Geitonoplesium cymosum Scrambling Lily Vine 25%
Clerodendrum tomentosum Hairy Clerodendrum RF Tree/Shrub 21%
Oplismenus imbecillis Beard-grass Grass 17%

28. Bulls Ground Study –
Plants more
frequent in Unburnt
Plots
Cissus hypoglauca – native grape
Pandorea pandorana – Wonga Vine
Schizomeria ovata – Native Cherry
Smilax glyciphylla - Sarsaparilla
Gymnostachys anceps – Settlers Flax
Notelaea longifolia – Mock Olive
Morinda jasminoides – Morinda

29. Species in Frequently Burnt Sites Common Name Form
Frequency from 77
landscape surveys
Breynia oblongifolia Coffee Bush Shrub 86%
Lomandra longifolia Mat-rush Grass 84%
Imperata cylindrica var. major Blady Grass Grass 83%
Ozothamnus diosmifolius Rice Flower Herb 74%
Entolasia stricta Hairy Panic Grass 73%
Dodonaea triquetra Hop Bush Shrub 70%
Billardiera scandens Apple Berry/dumplings Shrub/Twiner 66%
Podolobium ilicifolium Prickly Bastard Shrub 47%
Themeda australis Wallaby Grass Grass 43%
Glycine clandestina Twining Glycine Twiner 36%
Kennedia rubicunda Dusky Coral Pea Twiner 36%
Tetratheca thymifolia Black-eyed Susan Herb 34%
Hibbertia aspera (3) Rough Guinea Flower Shrub 32%
Gonocarpus teucrioides Common Raspwort Herb 26%
Pratia purpurascens Whiteroot Herb 25%
Panicum species(1) Common panic Grass 22%
Acacia myrtifolia Myrtle Wattle Shrub 17%
Lomandra filiformis Wattle Mat-rush Grass 17%
Daviesia ulicifolia Gorse Bitter Pea Shrub 10%
Pultenaea retusa Blunt Bush Pea Shrub 10%
Vernonia cinerea Fleabane/Ironweed Herb 10%
Lagenifera gracilis Slender Bottle Daisy Herb 8%
Oxalis corniculata (2) Creeping Woodsorrel Herb 4%

31. Room for less conservative – tolerable
interval approach
• Describe the vegetation change process from fire
• Describe the at risk species from burning outside
the theoretical intervals
• Assess those in areas you intend to burn and use
their presence/absence/growth stage as more
useful guides as to whether burning now is
appropriate

32. Threatened Species Assessment
• Look at risks once a fire regime approach to
meeting objectives is developed
• Work out strategies to protect those species
based on the type of risk they face
• Focus effort on things genuinely at risk from
fire under the proposed model
• Minimise the regulatory burden to deliver
burning objectives

34. Bertya sp. (Clouds Creek, M. Fatemi 4) - No fire more than once every 20 years.
Rock outcrop specialist – endangered (~500 plants) restricted to a 7 outcrops
Dry Sclerophyll Forest – Minimum fire interval of 8-10 years

35. Summary
1. Articulate the problems and potential solutions
2. Establish objectives that align with solving the
problems – landscape and vegetation community,
scale, tenure,
3. Establish burning guidelines that align with meeting
those objectives
4. Ensure that guidelines for are practical and meaningful
5. Prioritise value assessment towards species, sites,
issues of real concern after developing appropriate
strategic processes