Black Saturday - Kinglake Bushfire Fieldwork Report Peter Overton Contents Black Saturday - Kinglake Bushfire Fieldwork Report 1 1. Background information to the Black Saturday Bushfires 2 1.1 Overall geographic characteristics 2 1.1 Pressure of Outer Urban Development 2 1.2 Probable effects of climate change on future fire regimes in the Kinglake area 2 1.4 Weather events leading to the 7th of February 2009 3 1.5 The passage of the main fire front 3 Kilmore east fire 3 Murrindindi fire 3 Kinglake fire complex. 4. 2 Research questions. 4 3 Effects on parts of community 4 3.1 Flora 4 3.8 Fauna 5 3.9 Humans 6 Conclusion 6
1. What is the difference between a. and Background information to the Black Saturday Bushfires.
1.1 Overall…show more content… Before the field trip to Kinglake National Park, Mason Falls and the Toorourrong Reservoir Park, we used Google Street view as well as images to investigate the vegetation growth and estimate tree cover. Through this, we can see the immediate impact of the Black Saturday Bushfires on the Kinglake National Park. The fire, being a forest crown fire, had burnt through the whole forest. Trees can survive and bounce back from fire if the inner most layer of the tree still has moisture in it and is not burnt. The Black Saturday Bushfires, and the Kinglake Fire Complex, were so intense that no moisture was left inside the trees, leaving them burnt and dead. On the field trip, we investigated the impact of the bushfires on the flora fifteen years on to see how well they recovered. We noticed that the tree coverage was estimated at 35-40%, a minimal amount for such a densely forested area. We also noticed that the old growth stood approximately 13-16 meters, compared to the new growth, which only stood about 6.4 meters. From these measurements, we were able to conclude that the old growth that was burnt and killed by the fire makes up most of the canopy and emergent layers. In the fourteen years since the fire, new growth has been able to emerge. This new growth…show more content… Helicopters dropped 3500 kilograms of eucalypt seeds, costing approximately 1.5 million dollars. This successfully established 3 and a half thousand hectares of eucalypts. Surveys were then taken to find areas that needed additional planting. This has allowed the regrowth of the forest floor, understory, and parts of the
