Sensitive areas under threat
CONSERVATIONISTS remain anxious about the prospect of fire destroying ecologically sensitive, world heritage vegetation in the Central Highlands that could take “decades to recover”.
Tasmanian Land Conservancy head of science and planning Sally Bryant said more than half of the 11,500ha Five Rivers Reserve had already burned.
While much of the affected area is adapted to fire, and vegetation such as highland grasses can benefit from burning to regenerate within years, Dr Bryant said the conservancy was not complacent about the need to protect at-risk rainforest gullies and alpine plateaus.
Heritage listed sphagnum peatlands, alpine cushion plans, stands of cider gum and threatened dwarf conifers like Mt Mawson Pine are particularly vulnerable to fire.
“Luckily, the greatest areas of high sensitivity have not burnt at this stage,” Dr Bryant said.
“One area in particular, on Skullbone Plains, is one of the highest sphagnum areas that is nationally listed in Tasmania.”
The conservancy’s firetrained staff has worked with the Tasmanian Fire Service and Parks and Wildlife crews to protect sensitive areas.
Dr Bryant said the conservancy had noticed climatic changes affecting the reserve, even in the nine years since it bought the property from logging company Gunns in 2010.
“These areas that are full of lakes and creeks and streams are so dry that often, when we do field work, we have to take water for our volunteers.”
In coming weeks, the conservancy plans to collect data from its fixed monitoring sites and install new ones to determine the rate of recovery and map the fire boundary.
Five Rivers’ threatened species include the Tasmanian devil, eastern and spotted tail quoll, wedge-tailed eagle nests and nationally listed freshwater fish, the Clarence galaxias.