Controlled burning to start to aid critically endangered western ground parrot
Esperance Express by Haidee Vandenberghe
After two years of planning, the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) is beginning to implement a controlled burning program that is hoped to both further protect the critically endangered western ground parrot and prevent enormous and destructive fire events in uncleared land.
According to DEC district fire co-ordinator Gavin Wornes, evidence suggests that major fire events are now occurring every 20 to 25 years – something that didn’t happen hundreds of years ago.
“Fire is part of our landscape and it is something that needs to be implemented and managed,” Mr Wornes said.
“We’re not going to remove those natural events but we can ensure that when they do happen it is controllable.
“What we don’t want to see is those huge fire events that we have previously seen.”
The huge fire events described by Mr Wornes have massive ramifications for the native fauna, particularly if – like the western ground parrot – they are critically endangered.
Only existing in the Cape Arid and Fitzgerald National Parks, it is believed that there many be as few as 100 remaining western ground parrots.
An enormous fire in 2003 that burnt a large section of the Cape Arid National Park has had a dramatic impact on the ground parrot, significantly reducing the locations within the park in which it can be found.
“These types of birds need varying ages of vegetation,” Mr Wornes explained.
“They nest in old vegetation but forage in new vegetation.
“It is therefore not ideal to have a large area of their natural habitat scarred by fire.”
Mr Wornes believes that it will be another seven or eight years before the ground parrot will again be able to spread from the small pockets in which they survived the massive fire.
In the meantime, the DEC will be burning strategically sized and positioned areas to reduce the chances of a huge fire event occurring and to sustain biodiversity.
Future controlled burns are planned for Stokes National Park, Helms Arboretum and Cape Le Grand and Cape Arid National Parks, with consultations with relevant stakeholders occurring beforehand.