to burn or not to burn

The pressure is on again. It comes every year about this time in this part of the world. You have a block of land therefore you must burn it. A lot of people do it. It is the responsible thing to do say the Bushfires Council. You must reduce your fuel load early in the Dry so that it wont burn late in the Dry.

They tell me that the research is all in. Burning annually in the Top End is the way to go. Burn early though so that the burn is cool and doesn't do too much damage to the larger trees, gives the animals some chance of survival and, with a cool burn, there is less chance of it getting away and destroying someone elses's block - or taking out a touch more of yours than intended.

Aboriginal people did it. They still do in fact. Many plants require an annual burn to generate germination. Animals have learned to live with it and clearly many survive. Pastoralists need to to it to freshen up pasture and thus provide nutrient to their animals further into the Dry.

But what about the land. The soil pumps its nutrient into the plants that it hosts, the plants grow flat out during the Wet and in the early part of the Dry, seeding and getting ready to die off so that they will rot down and return some of the nutrients they have gathered and processed to the soil ready for the next stage of the cycle. What happens when we interrupt the cycle? Less nutrient goes back into the soil, more carbon into the atmosphere, less viable seed available for next year?

Aboriginal people burn for a number of reasons. It is a very effective means of chasing game out of the heavy scrub. Fire also brings on some bush foods or makes it easier to gather.

Is there another way of achieving the required purposes? We could slash the grass on the smaller blocks. Lot of work in this. We could try grazing in cells to manage the grass on larger holdings more effectively. We could make sure we have excellent firebreak networks so that wildfires can be stopped.

Research to date has looked at when to burn. Why not research on whether to burn? Is burning simply a lazy land manager's tool?

I have a slightly different problem but one shared by many in this area. We have gamba grass. This is an introduced grass from Africa. A wonderful grass that grows quickly in large clumps to 3 or 4 meters, loaded with nutrient and oils. It is a great stockfeed and is so efficient that, even when subjected to intense grazing pressure, it will shoot green at the end of the Dry season when there is bugger all moisture in the soil. Gamba burns hot and high. A gamba fire takes out everthing - trees and all. After the fire the gamba comes back bigger and brighter than before, shooting from the burn tussocks, faster than any of the native grasses. Given time gamba and fires will turn the savana woodland to savanna grassland - gamba grassland. We didn't sow this grass but we do have to manage it.

Don't think I will burn this year. Best get that tractor moving and sharpen the blades on the slasher. I have a lot of work to do.