[LINK] Bush Fire Speeds (was Re: home emergencies)

Roger Clarke Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au
Fri Feb 20 15:20:52 AEDT 2009


Roger wrote:
>>  Fortunately one of the main stands of that in the Brindabellas 
>>somehow survived, with the fire going around it.

>>  From: Marghanita da Cruz <marghanita at ramin.com.au>
>Did the fire miss the stand of Mountain Ash or did it recover?

It missed it.

Despite the well-known ability of eucalypts (except snow gum / E. 
pauciflora) to regenerate from the trunk and main limbs outwards, the 
Canberra fire was so fierce that a frightening percentage of the 
trees never recovered.  Even on the Coolemon ridge-line above us, 
60-70% of the trees simply died.  The government removed them, so it 
doesn't look so ghostly any more.

The alpine areas in both NSW and Vic, dominated by pauciflora, will 
take decades to resume business as usual (or as-once-was), because 
snow gums regenerate from the roots, and of course growth is slower 
at altitude anyway.

Because many of the Vic fires of 2009 were even more fierce than 
ACT'03, I fear that a big percentage of all E. species will simply 
die.  They may take a couple of decades to fall over, and 
regeneration will be very slow.


-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW



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