Dead trees in the high country

I'm curious - how does a fire leave white trees?

Paul

Mountain Ash has a thin bark and basically the fire's heat boiled the sap. Thicker bark provides more insulation and those trees with it have half a chance of surviving.

2003 fatalities have had the dead bark flake off by now and you get the silver trunks.

Snow Gums go the same way but they have a big rhizome and shoots grow from that. That makes old walking tracks a bit of a bush bash.

Sigmund is spot on re tree damage and there are no burns evident as the bark and all signs of fire are gone.
Fires now are certainly much much hotter due to massive fuel loads accumulating on the forest floor. This fuel and an understorey of woody weeds and scrub leads to an increase on flame height which more easily ignites the oil laden foliage and makes fires near impossible to stop without extensive dozing of breaks and a lot of luck with weather.
Speaking to old timers, cattlemen, walkers and prospectors, they tell of being able to see through the trees and being able to take sightings on prominent features such as a really big tree or a distant mountain to travel through what was then un-mapped country.
As for cattle grazing the high country it was the burning of all the rubbish by cattlemen to promote pasture that kept the country safe any minimal if any control by cattle grazing.
Just putting cattle back up there would benefit places like Wonangatta where grass is a major fuel component but they don't eat sticks and I can't see DEPI letting anyone do their own burning. It has probably got to a stage now that the fuel loads and limits on controlled burns and reluctance on the part of many land managers to do any burns if they can avoid it, that we will keep seeing massive uncontrollable fires continue to happen.

Thanks for the informative response. We never stop learning.
Paul

You can thank the greens for that.
funny how they win over the city folk and get elected in, yet in country areas they dont get much of a run ;-)
City folk dont see their stupid policies out in the real world. ..that vote for them. ..

It was only a few years ago, in Vic under Bracks, that grazing leases were cancelled (and cattlemen given $100 per beast compensation) in the remaining section open to it in the Alpine NP. In Kosi NP grazing was ended in 1958 - to protect water quality. That plus careful rehab have restored the delicate alpine ecology to something like its former glory.

In the highest montane areas of our NPs in a number of areas burning off was banned because of the risk to ski resorts. (Only a change of wind direction saved Hotham in 2003.)

Huge areas of dead trees is "something like its former glory"? Perhaps we should be improving it again by allowing grazing and controlled burns rather than decimating it with wildfires to "something like its former glory"

In Vic there's over a hundred studies and reports on Alpine grazing that show the damage it does to the ecosystem - erosion, damage to moss beds, weed spread and degradation of waterways and water quality.

It's still the case though that much Alpine grazing occurs outside of the NPs and there was always more of that in area terms than inside.

They should have blamed lack of supervision!

Would love some feedback on how effective it is.

How long does it cut fro before the battery dies?
How long to charge from flat?

Malcolm,

Some manufacturer info here.

I bought a kit (saw, battery and charger) from Bunnings for $499.Details

There is a new 80V model with an 18" bar that has a higher chain speed, etc, but how far do you go? Their price of $339 is saw only. You'd have to add a battery and charger for another $326, total $665.

I haven't had the opportunity yet to test it fully but I read somewhere for the 40V model 120 cuts per charge. But what's a standard cut? There's a big difference between a 6" green softwood log and a 12" dead hardwood log.

Charge time is 2 hours.

Cheers

Malcolm,

Do a search on posts by member Robin Miller. Pretty sure he mentioned using one on his bush block, during past year or two.

Bob

Greenies will get blamed for the weevil too... ;-)

Read some years back where Bellbirds were being blamed for spreading eucalyptus Dieback. Apparently "they" were culling these little fellars in some areas in NSW?

Good name, 9900eagle! :-) Spent a few hours in some of them, 5 or 6 years ago. Not a bad old lorry.

Bob

Bob, I used too be slow but for some reason exploroz decided it didn't recognise my email anymore and wouldn't let me log in, so I had to use a new email address and name.

I have a very big soft spot for Inters, even though they were always known as the poor mans Kenworth.

No worries, Slow. Thought you might have been travelling........

Used to be a strong Inter clientele around Winton years ago. There's a few rebuilt examples up in the truck museum. The Eagles weren't too bad. In fact had a few specs that the more expensive brands should be including.

Bob

Hi Iain,

Before the new rules did any logging take place to thin out the trees ? This usually results in better management through access roads to put out fires as they effect the livelihood of the workers.

If no logging did you used to "burn off" every few years ?

Hullo Iain
I think you are right in as much there is rarely one answer, rather a combination of factors.
As a matter of interest, have you read Bill Gammage's book "The Biggest Estate on Earth"?
Cheers
Andrew