Bush Fire and its Potential Impact Upon Threatened Species
		Paper by: John Travers Conacher Travers Pty. Ltd. 4 Hope Street Wyong NSW 2259 bushfire@bigpond.com
	Since settlement in 1788 Australia has been subject to fire regimes that are partly alien to the natural fire regimes pre 1788. Regardless of either pre 1788 or post 1788 fire regimes that have been applied by either Aboriginals or Europeans there has been no more potentially harmful activity than what has been happening over the past 10 years and in particular the past 3 years. The Threatened Species Conservation Act has created instances where the protection of listings such as the Cumberland Plain Snail (Meridolum corneovirens) will be terminally affected should fire be used as a prescription measure within Cumberland Plain Vegetation. More recently the Scientific Committee have identified "high frequent fires" as a Threatening Process. This means that high frequency fire can potentially terminally affect "species, populations and ecological communities". Other planning instruments such as Local Environmental Plans, legislation such as the Rural Fires Act, Native Vegetation Act also limit the use of fire as an effective tool for managing our native vegetation. Prior to the 1980's the use of fire was applied generally over larger areas of at least 100 hectares. Today prescription burning is rarely applied on lands smaller than several hundred hectares. Rarely is it applied on small areas less than 10 ha. Fire has an important role in the preservation, conservation and evolutionary adaptation of our native species. As people trend towards the protection of small remnant bushland areas the lack of fire on those vegetation parcels will ultimately compromise the natural evolutionary cycle and lessen the level of our biodiversity as a whole.
Ecological Consultants Association of NSW Inc.