Tips for managing land and helping wildlife after a fire
Has your property or land near you been affected by bushfires? Our Healthy Ecosystems ecologists have put together some tips below to help you manage land after a fire including how you can help wildlife.
Wildlife
After a fire has gone through an area, there may be many species that were able to escape the fire by burrowing underground, flying or moving away. For those that do survive, there is likely to be limited food, water and shelter available. You can assist by taking the following actions:
- Put out water
- Leave out multiple shallow bowls, of different depths
- Leave sticks for smaller animals to climb out on
- Place near vegetation to provide shelter from feral species
- Regularly refill the containers
- Put up nest boxes to replace lost hollows or arborists can create hollows in existing tree
- Provide shelter from predators for small animals (mammals + reptiles) by leaving fallen logs on the ground
- Make your pool wildlife safe
- Drape something over the edge of your pool so animals have a surface to grab hold of and climb out. Heavy-duty rope or even a bodyboard, secured at one end to something heavy outside the pool, provides a platform for an exhausted animal to rest on.
- Check your pool regularly (twice daily) including in the skimmer box.
- Put out food – If you decide to help fauna until the vegetation regenerates you could consider providing food. By feeding them you are making a commitment to support them at least during the period of extraordinary stress and deprivation.
- Small bush birds, such as robins, flycatchers, warblers, thornbills and many honeyeaters: Put out small quantities of low-fat, high-protein substitutes such as commercial pet food (with added vitamins and minerals) or mealworms (available from pet shops), as these are readily accepted by many insect eating birds.
- Lorikeets and honeyeaters: Commercially available diet mixes
- Parrots, honeyeaters, finches and possums: Fresh soft fruits
Injured wildlife
- If you can safely take injured animals to your nearest vet please do so
- Call WIRES to let them know which vet you’ve taken the animal to so they can follow up
- Do not approach injured snakes, flying-foxes, large macropods, raptors or monitors as these must be rescued by trained specialists, for these species call WIRES first for rescue assistance
If you find a trapped or injured animal, call WIRES immediately on 1300 094 737 for advice.
More resources:
Shelter: https://www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au/samurraydarlingbasin/publications/bushfire-recovery-and-biodiversity
Monitoring
It is advisable to monitor the response of the plants and animals after the fire as well as the success of any actions you take to allow for adaptive management if results are not meeting objectives.
Things you may want to monitor include:
- Vegetation changes
- Weed invasion
- Feral pests
- Fire’s extent
- Erosion
- Native species composition changes
Types of monitoring include:
- Photo points – photos taken from the same location and compared over time e.g. 3,6 or 12 months
- Vegetation plot monitoring
- Weed monitoring
- Visual assessment of vegetation, habitats, scats etc.
- Fauna surveys – this can range from looking at night to paid ecological surveys by ecologists
- Motion sensing camera traps
What to do
- Write a monitoring plan for your property
- Map where the fire effected your property
- Record data regularly
- Set up photo points in critical areas
- If you have the resources, place camera traps and sound monitors around your property
- Use adaptive management to influence your management decisions
Water & Erosion
Loss of vegetation exposes top soil to erosion. This soil and other debris is often washed into water ways during the first few big rainfall events after a fire. Freshwater systems take between 5-20 years to fully recover from fire events, therefore minimizing erosion into water ways is crucial.
Loss of vegetation can increase water temperatures plus the added organic matter and sediment can cause deoxygenation of the water as microbes remove oxygen from the water causing many aquatic animals to suffocate.
Toxification from suspended sediment, nutrients and metals in the water can also render it undrinkable for humans and animals.
Some fires can cause the soil to become hydrophobic, increasing water run-off and potential for flooding. This also makes it difficult for seeds to germinate and any surviving plants to obtain water.
What to do
- Take actions and plan to reduce the impact of fire-fighting activities on waterways, such as construction of mineral earth breaks and the use of fire retardants. (https://www.waterquality.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/impact-bushfires.pdf)
- Use Coir logs around water ways to capture sediments
- Erect silt fences around water ways
- Plant native trees and shrubs to stabilize water banks and slopes
- Create log terraces to prevent large organic matter entering water ways and prevent erosion
- Straw and wood mulch have been found to be the most effective for large scale erosion control (Soil binders [polyacrylamide], contour-felled logs, and straw wattles have been found to be less effective at preventing erosion
- Minimize vehicle and livestock on bare ground (https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/fire/water-erosion-control-after-fire)
- Push back top soil with heavy machinery (?)
Adding barley straw to contaminated or potentially contaminated water has two effects:
- Nutrient stripping – the high carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of barley straw means that when it breaks down it uses available nitrogen in the water. This reduces conditions favourable to algae growth.
- Release of chemicals that reduce the growth of harmful blue-green algae – Salcolin A and Salcolin B (both flavonolignans) have been identified as active agents against Microcystis sp.)
- https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/water-management/contaminated-farm-dams
Weeds
Invasive weeds are often the first species to establish post-fire, as open canopies allow for light and resources without competition.
What to do
- Spray herbicides post-fire (Fire and weeds booklet). Some examples include:
- African lovegrass
- Lantana
Timeline for actions to-do following a fire
Fire event
- 1 day: Put out water and shelter for wildlife
- 1 week: Establish monitoring programs and develop treatment plans
- 1 month: Take actions to prevent soil erosion
- 3 months: Implement weed management actions Ongoing
- 1 year: Use monitoring program to assess actions ongoing
- 3 years: Maintain a Bush Fire Management Plan and implement actions, preparing for the next fire event.
http://hotspotsfireproject.org.au/ecological-resources
References
Water quality https://www.waterquality.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/impact-bushfires.pdf
https://www.waterquality.gov.au/issues/bushfires
Australian water quality standards can be accessed here: https://www.waterquality.gov.au/anz-guidelines/about/how-to-use
https://extension.colostate.edu/soil-erosion-control-after-wildfire-6-308/
Tags
Bushfires
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