6.

3 Fire
6.3.1 Situation at purchase The detailed burning regime maintained by Aboriginal people prior to European occupation is poorly known. It is understood to have been intensively managed at small scales, as attested by traditional custodians throughout north Queensland, and recorded by early European observers. Due to disruption of customary land management and a general reduction in the population of Aboriginal people in the area, burning practices are likely to have changed from as early as the late 1800s with a complete absence of Aboriginal burning by the mid 1900s. Prior to acquisition by AWC, systematic management for fire over the last 50 years or so was only conducted on a relatively small portion of the sanctuary area for pasture management and infrastructure protection. Apart from heavily grazed areas, with their consequently low fuel loads, the majority of the area was subject to a regime of erratic wildfires. Many vegetation communities on Mount Zero-Taravale inherently support fire, and unless burnt in an appropriate pattern and at appropriate times, will eventually be burnt by intense and extensive wildfires. A notable exception is the wet sclerophyll forest on the higher eastern parts of the sanctuary, where the long term exclusion of fire, rather than simply adding to the accumulation of fuel and thus the intensity of the eventual fire (as occurs in drier areas), can lead to the emergence of a non-flamable shrub layer of rainforest species, and a permanent change in community structure. Deep soils and high rainfall conspire to create an uneasy relationship between rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest, the outcome of which is determined by fire regime. In the absence of fire for as little as 20 years, the tall sclerophyll forest is invaded by a rainforest understory which has the potential to capture the site and prevent the regeneration of the sclerophyll canopy. (Stanton 2007) Small areas of wet sclerophyll on the sanctuary had a well developed rainforest understory at the time of acquisition - the result of several decades without fire. However the majority of this community type on the sanctuary, though in the early stages of transition to rainforest, retains some of its grassy understory the positive result of a fire regime designed to promote grazing. Dense infestations of the weed Lantana were also widespread throughout the Star valley area. This situation was probably due to altered fire regime. (see 6.3.2 below) In places the margins of rainforest patches in gullies flanking the Star River valley have been severely impacted by wildfires that have created large gaps in the canopy and allowed the development of a lantana understory. Thick lantana along the margins of these forests probably provides fuel for subsequent wildfires, which progressively reduce the extent of these forests. Many western and central parts of the sanctuary are covered by a scattering of exposed rock outcrop, both as boulder fields and pavements on undulating surfaces and as ridges, cliff faces and tallus slopes in steeper areas. This rocky mosaic acts to break the advance of wildfires into a naturally patchy distribution, providing a heterogeneity of fire histories and a

number of small areas that are almost fire proof. Large stands of hoop pine (Auracaria cunninghami), a tree normally killed outright by fire, occur in some of these areas.

6.3.2 Implications for wildlife conservation Fire is an essential component of ecosystem functioning for the vast majority of communities on Mount Zero-Taravale. The pattern of fire (or the lack of it) and its interaction with other ecosystem processes can be considered in 3 broad themes: 1. Permanent changes to community structure (particularly wet scleophyll). 2. Impact of uncontrolled fire on ecostsems. 3. Synergistic effects of grazing, fire and weed invasion (particularly lantana). Permanent changes to community structure. Topical bettongs are restricted to (a few) wet sclerophyll forests where the species of truffles (underground fungi) that are their principal and preferred food source grow. It is likely that changes to the structure and floristics of their sclerophyll forest due to exclusion of fire, is among the principal causes of population decline. It appears that with development of a rainforest understory following suppression of fire, the species composition of truffles changes to one that is unsuitable for tropical bettongs. (Environmental Protection Agency 2007). Further, several of the bettongs supplementary foods, including cockatoo grass (Alloteropsis semialata) and several species of lilies and orchids, are also disadvantaged by development of a shrubby understory.

Impact of uncontrolled fire on ecosystems. In large areas of contiguous open woodlands, as occur over much of the sanctuary, attempted exclusion of fire, which results in the accumulation of uniformly large fuel loads, greatly increases the risk of ecologically destructive wildfires (intense fires late in the dry season). Wildfires kill many species directly and destroy habitat such as hollow tree branches and fallen logs. These hot, extensive fires can alter whole ecosytems, encouraging fire adapted grasses at the expense of shrubs and trees, and reduce complex patterns of juxtaposing habitats to a monotonous uniformity. Some species require relatively long unburnt patches of habitat, and wildfires threaten their survival. Patches of fire sensitive communities such as vine thickets, rock orchid communities and gallery forests are an important component of the mosaic of habitats that support the biodiversity of Mount Zero-Taravale. These communities resist fire by sacrificing the plants on their margins; plants that are killed by fire but which provide insufficient fuel to carry it. Hot fires, if occurring often enough, can progressively burn away the margins of these communities, reducing their extent or replacing them entirely. Clearly, hot and extensive wildfires are not good for wildlife conservation, and need to be avoided, but simply attempting to totally exclude fire to achieve this end is not an effective approach, since any single failure of this strategy (a high likelihood) will result in heavillyfuelled and intense wildfire. Frequent and distributed burning reduces the likelihood of extensive wildfire by preventing the accumulation of large fuel loads and breaking up their uniformity. Frequent small fires, lit in appropriate conditions, leave scattered areas of the ground cover unburnt, thus reducing the average distance between habitat patches.

Synergistic effects of grazing, fire and weed invasion. The introduction of cattle grazing, the spread of lantana seeds by frugivorous birds and the adoption of fire management practices for pasture enhancement have conspired to produce several thousand hectares of dense lantana infestation. The consumption of grass by cattle, combined with the active supression of fire by graziers, has allowed the unpalatable weed to compete with native plants in the absence of hot fires. Once established, thickets of lantana dominate fertile soil areas and exclude a diversity of native plants and their associated fauna. 6.3.3 Objectives Fire management at Mount Zero-Taravale is designed primarily to maintain biodiversity by meeting the following objectives: Prevent the replacement of wet sclerophyll forest by rainforest species in the east of the property. Protect rainforest pockets in gullies and Araucarian woodland on rock outcrops from wildfire. Destroy and control extensive infestations of lantana. Create a patchwork of fire histories to maintain heterogeneous mosaic of habitats. This pattern is intended to maximise habitat availability to wildlife. Prevent the accumulation of fuel over large contiguous areas and thereby reduce the likelihood of destructive wildfires. Ensure the protection of human life and property both within and adjacent to the sanctuarys boundaries. Encourage the adoption of environmentally appropriate fire management on surrounding properties to reduce the risk of extensive wildfires. Develop and implement methods of monitoring the long term impact of fire management on all significant habitats.

6.3.4 Strategies Ideally, a detailed prescribed burning pattern would be developed for each of the sanctuarys ecosystems based on a knowledge of each systems fire ecology. However, while detailed mapping of the vegetative component of ecosystems is now available, the required knowledge of fire ecology is not. It would not be sensible to forestall an active burning program while waiting for better knowledge, not only because inaction can lead to catastrophic, and effectively irreversible consequences, but also because a well monitored experimental program is the most effective way of gaining the required knowledge. As a consequence, strategies for fire management on Mount Zero-Taravale are based partly on the results of research into the ecology of particular species (e.g. Catling 1986), research into the fire ecology of some very broadly defined ecosystems (e.g. Harrington & Sanderson 1994), and is partly intuitive and experimental. Strategies for fire management are presented here under 4 broad themes: 1. Collation and analysis of existing information. 2. Control of wildfire and maintainence of habitat diversity by patch burning 3. Maintainence of wet sclerophyll habitat 4. Weed control

Collation and analysis of existing information Develop a fire history for Mount Zero-Taravale from 1999 (ie. 5 years before AWC management) using archived satellite imagery in order to: - Characterise fire patterns pre-AWC management, - Provide a benchmark with which to compare changes in fire patterns wrought by new management, - Provide a framework for interpreting patterns in veg and animal abundance and distributions. Map the vegetation communities on Mount Zero-Taravale to: - identify location of fire sensitive communities and species, - identify locations and distributions of communities with specific fire management requirements (eg wet schlerophyll), - provide a baseline from which to measure changes in the distributions of veg communities post AWC management.

Control of Wildfire and maintenance of habitat diversity by patch burning. Approximately 30% of the sanctuary is covered by grassy forests, which will generally support a subsequent fire within 3 years of being burnt. In order to prevent large areas of these communities being burnt in one event, small patches are ignited progressively throughout the year, thus creating a mosaic of patches at different stages of recovery since fire, with about a third of this community burnt in any one year. The patchwork of recently burnt or fuel reduced areas thus created, is designed to: - constrain wildfire to small fronts, bounded by (and controllable from) recently burnt or fuel reduced areas, and; - provide a pattern of juxtaposing habitats at different post-fire stages to maximise wildlife access to habitat diversity The precise timing and pattern and patch size of these fires is not prescribed (other than for closely manipulated experimental purposes) since it is usually impossible to predict all of the contingent factors with any accuracy. However creeks and roads are frequently used as convenient perimeters. Where fire-sensitive communities (e.g. rainforest patches) are to be protected from hot fire, burning back from, rather than to, the margins is practiced, though this is un-neccessary if cool fires are used. Shrubby forests, with an intermittent grassy understorey, cover the drier western 2/3rds of the sanctuary. These forests accumulate fuel at a slower rate than the grassy forests, and are patch burnt in a six year cycle. These forests appear to be able to carry fire within 4 years of being burnt. With this fire regime, with about a third of the grassy forests and a half of the scrubby forests capable of carrying fire in any one year, no more than a maximum of 40% of the sanctuary should be capable of carrying wildfire under normal conditions in any year. In reality, the pattern of patch burning and natural barriers to fire reduces this proportion significantly. Maintainence of wet sclerophyll habitat In contrast to the condition of much of the wet sclerophyll forest within the Wet Tropics Bioregion, much of this community type on the sanctuary has not developed a dense rainforest understory. In order to maintain this condition it is necessary to promote fires sufficiently hot to kill shrubs, which requires ignition in dryer conditions than would be suitable for patch burning in more westerly areas. To prevent these relatively hot fires

escaping into adjacent areas, early season patch burns on the western margins of the wet sclerophyll, together with roads and the power line easement, are used to maintain a fuel reduced containment lines. Detailed prescriptions for the burning program in the wet sclerophyll are determined by an experimental design developed in collaboration with the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency (see appendix F). Weed control Lantana infestations in the Star River valley area can be significantly reduced then continually suppressed by fire. Following the removal of grazing pressure and subsequent accumulation of grassy fuel over several years, moderately hot, late season fires are used to kill over 50% of lantana plants within infestations (Williams 2008). Following initial reduction, continual suppression of seedlings and re-sprouts is achieved with a less aggressive fire program commensurate with the patch burning strategy discussed above.

6.3.5 Evaluation, Monitoring and reporting Fire is a critial ecological process, an essential ingredient for a large number of species and communities adapted to its presence, but it is also capable of threatening ecosystem integrity if mis-applied. Due to the inherently experimental nature of most fire regimes designed for habitat maintenance, it is important to monitor both the behaviour of fire and the response of ecosystems and species. A number of specific measures are designed to evaluate the effectiveness of AWCs adopted fire strategies. These are listed below, with methodological details discussed in section 7. Fire patterns: o Map the location, timing and extent of fires using a combination of remote sensing and ground truthing. Use this data to measure success against metrics such as: - No less than 10% and no more than 40% of property to be burnt each year. - Area unburnt within a fire scar not to be less than 25% - Max size of any fire not to exceed 6,000 Ha. - increase in the range of ages since burning within all fire-prone vegetation types i.e. an increase in the heterogeneity of the burning pattern. (It is important to note that the purpose of these indices is not to set specific prescriptions for the conduct of burning, since fire cannot be controlled with this level of precision. Rather, these measures are intended to facilitate analysis for the adaptation of fire management over time) General faunal/floral response: o Monitor the response of communities and species to fire by establishing a network of monitoring sites (for vertebrates and vegetation) in a cross section of habitats around the property to be sampled annually Indicators (fire sensitive/dependent species/communities):

Periodically (every 5-10 years) map the extent and edge condition of fire sensitive species and communities (e.g. rainforest patches) to measure changes in extent or abundance Periodically (every 5-10 years) map the overall extent of fire-dependent vegetation communities, particularly wet sclerophyll open forest, Measure the adundance and distribiution of fire sensitive species (eg. Mediumlarge rodents) Measure the abundance and distribution of fauna species that specialise on fire-depenedent communities (e.g. tropical bettong) Measure reduction in the distribution and abundance of weeds that can be controlled/managed with fire: Map the extent and density of these weeds at least biannually and overlay changes in distribution with fire treatment

6.3.6 Actions and results to date Since acquisition, AWC has taken the following actions pursuant to the strategies above: o The sanctuary has been de-stocked to return grassland fuel accumulation rates to natural condition o Detailed vegetation mapping has been completed (appendix C) and provides fine scale information on the distribution of ecosystems for refinement of fire planning. o Patch burning has been conducted over the majority of the sanctuary over the past 4 years (see map 11) o The distribution and density of lantana has been mapped and moderately intense fires used to significantly reduce its density (see section 6.5. for details) o An experimental pattern of burning for habitat maintenance of wet sclerophyll has been conducted and evaluated (appendix F) o A comprehensive fauna and fauna sampling program has been established to provide information on the response of wildlife populations to the fire program (see section 7 for details).

Map 11. Fires since 2005 (from Northern Austalian Fire Information website)