Of fire, flowers and four-footed friends

By Dr Anina Lee

And so we are rapidly coming to the end of a catastrophic Covid-year in which human resilience has been tested to the extreme. While it is the end of a year, it is also the beginning of the fire season in the Western Cape.

It is a scant two years since the 2018/19 fire season that was one of the most overwhelming in the history of the Overberg. While more than 30 wildfires burned during the season, 20 of these were very damaging and very costly.

We know that wildfires are necessary for the fynbos biome to function healthily – that includes both the smaller annual fires and the major wildfires that occur every decade or so. The fires are part of the natural fire regime of fynbos vegetation, which has been growing here for millions of years. Fynbos is not just adapted to fire, but also dependent on it. Fire returns nutrients to the soil in the form of ash, thus promoting regeneration of fynbos biodiversity.

How do we manage the inevitability of fynbos fires and at the same time prevent catastrophic loss in terms of human settlements? The answer is ‘controlled ecological burns’. The implementation of an integrated, long-term burn strategy can help maintain a patchwork of vegetation at various stages of growth that will break up the spread of large-scale fires.

This variation in age can help to prevent large swathes of the established, dense, and more fire-prone bush from going up in flames. The Overstrand Municipality’s fire department and environmental services section are presently working on such a strategy for municipal land.

Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 22)