Interesting talk on fire patterns and invader plant control
A talk on fire patterns, indigenous forests, invasive plants and protected trees by Dr Coert Geldenhuys, presented by the Tuin-op-die-Brak Society on Thursday 1 February in Die Waenhuis at Jagersbosch, attracted a full hall.
Geldenhuys, a forest ecologist and extra ordinary professor in Plant Science at the University of Stellenbosch, spent a few days in Stilbaai and visited the areas of the recent fires while he also gave an interesting insight into the protected milkwood trees. In his talk, he said that the forest cover potential (more than 7% of South Africa) is determined by an annual rainfall of more than 525 mm, but their very fragmented patches cover only 0.1%. This resulted from hot, dry bergwinds during the dry season, driving lightningignited fires along specific pathways, with forest patches persisting in fire-shadow sites. Changing towards cool or no fires (crops, reserves and parks, infrastructure), cause woody, often invasive plants to establish in the landscape, with two main effects: Increased tall, dense woody cover and fuel loads, contributing to devastating fires as at Knysna or nurse the establishment of shade-tolerant forest species in fire-shadow areas towards forest recovery. Resource use, control of invasive alien plants and forest rehabilitation can be managed within such natural disturbancerecovery processes. “Forests are not museum pieces, but very dynamic systems,” he said.