Alpine fire update

[Tim Barrows]

The following is from Ken Green (NPWS) <Ken.Green at npws.nsw.gov.au>

Hello all. I can only give an update on mountain fires in Kosciuszko 
National Park part 1 (Kossy has of course been split between two management 
regimes and I don't have a part in the regional structure of the northern 
end). Updates for the ACT and Victoria would be useful if anyone can 
provide them.

Basically the fires all seemed to begin in a 30 minute period when a wild 
electrical storm moved across from west to east. This started small easily 
extinguished fires on the Main Range, none in the Schlinks Pass area where 
I had to shelter from the rain as multiple lightning strikes went to earth. 
Approximately 44 fires were started. The problem lightning strikes leading 
to fires were all north and west of the line of the Main Range.
Fires moved in various directions under different landscape and wind 
conditions. There are too many fires to comment on individually but here 
are a few important fires ecologically.

TheTooma dam area fires moved north-west into the Dargals taking out most 
of the corroboree frog bogs there (Dave Hunter and Craig Smith are 
currently surveying these bogs post-fire). Intensive efforts over four days 
kept a three-pronged fire assault out of Snakey Plain (when last seen it 
was surrounded by blacked out vegetation).

We evacuated (ran away) from the Grey Mare Hut area on Friday when 
everything turned pear shape. Crews on the north of the line headed out via 
Tooma Dam while we took the high road out via Valentines and Schlinks. 
There is a bulldozer in at  Grey Mare Hut  but no-on is game to go in and 
get it. I took a look down towards Valentines Hut two days later but 
visibility was not good. We know the fire jumped the Grey Mare Fire Trail 
around Smiths Lookout and is burning in the area from Jagungal to Eucumbene 
Dam.

The Main Range acted as a fire break.  Most of the western faces have been 
burnt but as the flames came over the main ridge line and hit the alpine 
herbfields they petered out. Snowgrass was only able to sustain the fire 
while it had the heat and winds coming from the western faces and in the 
Mt. Carruthers-Twynam area the fire only progressed 30-50 metres into the 
snow grass area. At the same time (on the worst two days so far - Friday 
and Saturday) a spotover burned on the south western side of Blue Lake. 
When I arrived at the location on Sunday morning it had only burned 10-15 
ha and the active edge ("crowning"  through the snowgrass) was easily 
extinguished. There were a number of other spotovers - some burning areas 
as small as a carpet or rug. Thyere was a slightly larger one near the 
walkway between Thredbo and the Kossy summit. Snowgrass wasn't particularly 
flammable and snow daisies and pineapple grass almost have fire retardant 
status! Visibility (and mobility) in the area has been a problem, I could 
see fire choofing away behind Mt. Townsend (where there are extensive 
heaths) and a fire came down off the Ramsheads to below Lake Cootapatamba. 
But with limited time and impossibly stretched resources, added to the loss 
of aerial recce and attack because of the blanket of smoke I couldn't get a 
closer look at these. However, when visibility improves, a tourist at the 
lookout at Charlottes Pass will see an alpine area of wildflowers and 
probably wouldn'y even see (or at least recognise) the few visible bunt areas.

There were a number of places where fire spotted over the Main Range - this 
was mainly due to long strips of burning bark and even as far away as my 
home in Berridale blackened leaves rained down. The fire spotted over to 
the south of Perisher Valley burning to within about 200 m of lodges. 
Another spotover started a fire low down on Pipers Creek above the Guthega 
Road. This has resulted in the burning of the block between the main Kossy 
Road and the Guthega Road with boundaries on the Link Road to the west and 
Sponars on the east, taking out much of the lower catchment of Pipers 
Creek. This fire crossed the road at Dainers Gap and buned back up the 
valley towards Smiggin Holes on both sides of the valley before turning 
south-east and linking with the Perisher Valley fire and another spotover 
on Rennix Gap and when I last heard of them they were hovering above 
Thredbo Valley.

Another fire has burned in the area west of Thredbo in the South Ramshead - 
Dead Horse Gap area. This includes the area surveyed only last year for the 
Biodiversity Blitz. This leads me to part of the reason for this email. A 
number of people have been working on research  plots which have now 
burned. While for some this may have actually  ruined the experiment (in my 
broad-toothed rat study my three non-fox-baited sites have burned while my 
three fox-baited sites are unburnt - so far); for others it presents an 
opportunity to take their research in a new direction - impacts of fire and 
recovery after fire. I had a long talk with Alec Costin yesterday and he is 
keen on a multi-disciplinary study - starting with full and virtually 
immediate low level aerial photography to see what communities have burned. 
Anyone who has research plots that have been surveyed before the fires and 
would like to be part of a 'big picture' post-fire study please get in 
contact and we will put together a proposal to NPWS (THIS WEEKEND!) for a 
fully funded study. We have to move quickly on his one to get things in 
place immediately post-fire. Any non-members of the AIAS who participated 
in the Biodiversity Blitz and can revisit study sites are encouraged to get 
involved in this project as well. Remember it was at about this time last 
year that we held the Biodiversity Blitz so I would encourage people to get 
down to revisit any plots ASAP.


I have been in the role of "field Intelligence" in these fires (I still 
haven't found an intelligent field) so have been roaming the mountains and 
getting into areas where currently we have no firefighters. However, 
following my medical clearance yesterday for my (ex) broken leg, I will 
probably be back in the more restricted role on the fireline so my 
knowledge of the fires will become more second-hand. I hope to keep you all 
informed, however, via other sources such as: Latest update 7 a.m. 
Wednesday (from Mary Green on night radio duties at Jindabyne). Fires are 
still threatening the Perisher Valley Smiggin Holes area, the Ramsheads are 
burning and Thredbo is still threatened. Fire crossed the Schlinks-Geehi 
Road at Dicky Cooper Creek and the Kerries are burning.

That's all folks.
Ken
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/private/aqualist/attachments/20030122/bd6a0eec/attachment.htm