Fires in KNP

Information and Discussion on Fire Management in Kruger
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Richprins
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Repeat of High Intensity Burn Near Afsaal in Sept 2013

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Hello!

To start off with, the area firebombed in Kruger in 2010 is scheduled to receive a repeat dose this year:

The burn will take place in two fire blocks in the Malelane section near the Afsaal picnic site. Blocks S086 and S063. The fire is at the same site as the team needs to repeat the fire treatment to look at the effects on the vegetation.
It was known from the start of the project that objectives for the project (having an effect on the woody vegetation) were not going to be achieved with a single fire and therefore they have to repeat the fire treatment in the same area.

For the second application of the high intensity fire treatment, they are not going to set the two blocks on fire in a single fire front (as done in 2010). They are only going to ignite the northern block in a perimeter fire. The team is also going to be changing the method of ignition for the second block. In 2010 they only used a perimeter. This year they are also targeting cooler or lower FDI days and allowing the ignition pattern (spiral) to create the hot fire.. This is a much safer and more practical option to create a hot fire. However, they have not tested this method and will do so in September 2013.

Dynamics of the high intensity fire.
Savanna vegetation has developed with fire for millions of years. They are extremely fire adapted and therefore it is very difficult to kill an intact savanna tree. With this in mind and the increase in the bush in the landscape (high rainfall and increased C02), we are losing our grasslands and the area is becoming a thicket. This has severe biodiversity, tourist and ecological consequences.. Now scientists would like to use fire as an option to remove some of the woody vegetation, as chemical and mechanical options at the landscape scale of the KNP is not viable. But as said, savanna vegetation is fire tolerant and therefore very high intensity fires are needed to have an effect on the trees. This is what this research project is trying to understand.


I'll put up a pic of a more detailed press article later!


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Re: Repeat of High Intensity Burn Near Afsaal in Sept 2013

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The thing is...why would Kruger's Scientific Services, who espouse a non-intervention policy regarding elephant culling, blowing up waterholes, not immunising roan antelope against anthrax etc. now focus on this massive human intervention? :-?

Perhaps the answer may be found here: This has severe biodiversity, tourist and ecological consequences.. ? :-?


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Re: Repeat of High Intensity Burn Near Afsaal in Sept 2013

Post by Sprocky »

I don't understand why they are advertising months in advance where the burn will take place. These maps that show the blocks and rough times of the burn are great info for poachers. 0*\

We all know that poachers have used fire to chase Rhino into a certain area. Now SANParks advertises the fact that they will burn certain areas in September, the poachers now only have to sit and wait for the Rhino to come running to them. :evil: 0:


Sometimes it’s not until you don’t see what you want to see, that you truly open your eyes.
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Burning Kruger 2010

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Kruger Park Times Dec 2010

Kruger fire raises a storm

In October the Saturday Star report on animals burnt in a Kruger experiment set in motion extensive media coverage of fires in Kruger, and especially the southern section.

“After the publication of the story, more visitors to the park said they had encountered several burnt and dead elephants – including a calf – impala and critically endangered ground hornbills in the past two weeks. “A visitor, who did not want be named for fear of being victimised, said he had seen numerous badly burnt animals last week.

“We were on the dirt road next to Afsaal on our way to Lower Sabie when we saw one elephant and dead birds – hornbills next to the road. There were also small antelope like duikers. One side of the elephant looked like acid had been thrown on to it.” Another park visitor, Russell Bruton, lamented the lack of accountability evidenced in the “cavalier” responses from officials quoted in last week’s story. This implied officials were happy to repeat the “disastrous experiment”, he said.

“They proffer that animals must get out the way because fire is natural, totally ignoring the fact this fire was intentionally set to be so intense only flighted birds could escape.

“What of breeding herds of elephant with calves, of which the cow in these pictures was probably a part; where is her calf; where are the others? Or rhino, or buffalo, or anything else with young?” Park visitor Teresa Agenbag said her sister had come across a burnt rhino last week being hounded by wild dogs and hyenas. “It was distressed and wouldn’t let cars pass.” (Independent Online, October 16).

The response from the Kruger National Park

Fire is a natural and important component of savannas, such as the KNP, and both plants and animals have adapted to fire through the millennia. Ignition sources for fire in Kruger are many and varied. Nevertheless, fires are usually started by man (tourists, poachers, trans-migrants, fires crossing from the outside the park’s borders) under warm environmental conditions (high temperatures and low relative humidity) and this often leaves rangers fighting large runaway fires. The current fire policy in the Kruger Park aims to reduce the number of large and hot runaway fires in the August – September late dry season by setting smaller and cooler management fires in May - June to break up the fuel load in the veld with burnt and un-burnt patches.

Kruger’s vast area, spanning nearly two million hectares of the Lowveld, constitutes a diverse and highly variable ecosystem. Persistence of this variability is a key to the great tourism product that the national park offers. This also requires variability in the nature and extent of fires that burn across these vast landscapes. Nevertheless, over time, a steady decrease in very large trees has been observed in most landscapes in the KNP, with a concurrent densification of the shrub layer in the western granitic areas of the Park. Tall trees play an important role in the ecosystem as nesting sites for large birds, as moisture and mineral pumps from deeper soil layers to the upper layers and also as shade for animals and tourists alike.

It is understood that elephants and fire are playing interactive and contributing roles in these processes. Some renowned scientists, such as Prof William Bond from the University of Cape Town, also attribute the bush densification phenomenon to an increase in atmospheric CO2 levels. Such a change in woody vegetation structure on a large scale will impact negatively on plant and animal species that prefer more open areas, and also on the associated game viewing experience for tourists.

A very dense shrub layer will make certain antelope species more vulnerable to predation while certain predators prefer more open areas for hunting. Rare and threatened species such as roan antelope, tsessebe, cheetah and wild dog prefer more open areas and have declined over the past decades. Current atmospheric CO2 levels are the highest they have ever been in the last million years.

This favours woody plants above savanna grasses more than ever before in the history of savannas. Higher CO2 makes woody plants grow faster, sprout better after fire and build defences (spines, tannins) more easily. This competitive advantage of woody vegetation has resulted in significant and increased encroachment of woody vegetation into our grasslands over the past few decades. In addition, substantial alteration and thickening of savannas translates into a potential loss of a crucial biome which currently sustains millions of people and their livelihoods in Africa. Bush thickening appears to be taking place in most South African savanna areas as well as in certain other areas in the country.

Fire is a natural process, but also an important tool that managers can use to combat bush thickening. Animals such as white rhino, zebra, wildebeest, roan antelope, tsessebe, cheetah and wild dog prefer open savannas and will benefit from more open areas created by judicious use of fire by park managers. In such a large, natural area such as the Kruger Park, it is clearly impractical to use herbicide or mechanical means to combat bush thickening.

The experiment

In southern KNP in particular, for example east of Pretoriuskop and south of the Biyamiti River, it is obvious how woody shrubs, especially Combretum and Terminalia are increasing in density in what used to be much more open areas. This area was therefore selected to rigorously and scientifically test the use of fire as an appropriate tool to learn more about the role of fire in shrub densification and the loss of tall trees. An experiment was thus designed as part of an active adaptive management process to implement very hot fires, so called “firestorms”, in two blocks in the Kruger Park.

Blocks that showed significant bush thickening and densification of the shrub layer were identified in the Malelane and Pretoriuskop sections in conjunction with section rangers. The experiment was approved by the Kruger Park Conservation Committee and the KNP Fire Protection Association (FPA) and a permit with conditions for the experiment was obtained.

The experiment and its conditions were also discussed with Working on Fire, the Lowveld and Escarpment FPA as well as with the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) Veldfires Oversight Directorate and all parties indicted that they were satisfied with the conditions and safety procedures for the experiment. The mandate given to SANParks via periodic public meetings followed by approvals by the SANParks EXCO, the SANParks Board and DEA on the management plan has several objectives which support all of the above thinking in concept and often in particular detail.

Baseline data were collected to assess the impact of “firestorms” on woody vegetation. The Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) assisted with flying the experimental areas to obtain high resolution LiDAR images of the three dimensional structure of vegetation before the fires were put in. CAO plans to return to the same area with a follow-up aerial campaign in 2011 to assess and quantify the change in vegetation structure caused by the firestorm experiment. Detailed field information was also collected pre and post the fire experiment on tree and shrub height and density and bark damage for different woody species to quantify fire impact.

Working on Fire

The Working on Fire team based in Nelspruit were actively involved in the planning of the experiment and assisted with burning the firebreaks as well as setting and controlling the experimental fire on 15 September using the latest aerial ignition technology. Before the blocks were set alight a helicopter was used to chase rhino and elephant out of the blocks. The fire front was first set alight on the western side along the tar road with a westerly wind.

The northern, eastern and southern flanks of the experimental blocks were left open to allow game to move out ahead of the fire front. In both blocks there were also a number of sodic sites without grass, areas that could act as refuge areas for game to move onto to get away from the fire. The blocks were burned as planned with no damage to any people or infrastructure. Rangers flew over and patrolled the blocks frequently the days after the fire, to look for injured game which may have needed to be euthanized.

Unfortunately in the days just after the experimental fires, which burnt about 12 000 hectares, an arsonist walked through the southern Kruger Park and set numerous fires under extreme environmental conditions. This and other arson fires this year have burnt 67 000 hectares in southern KNP. Nevertheless, in spite of precautions taken such as extensive firebreaks created for animals to move into, some animals were burnt in the experimental fire in spite of all precautions taken and a number of animals were also burned in the arson fires. Rangers continued to look for burnt animals and when found they would evaluate their condition. Some were put down immediately and others were monitored to see if they could recover.

The value system necessarily associated with managing large natural areas obviously includes condoning the many (normally cruel or violent) ways in which animals naturally die in such systems, though we as human custodians feel obliged to, whenever feasible, euthanize injured animals (especially) if human interference caused this. Generally we strive to limit such human interference in our management, but some is needed and it is always a sad event when such an animal has to be euthanized.

Due to the changing climate that we are managing within, with high air temperatures, lower relative humidity and increasing fire danger indices, fires that burn under the conditions that the experiment was lit under are becoming more frequent. However, in order to learn from, to use, adapt and manage these fires in the future we have to study how a high intensity fires burns and how the vegetation responds.

Pre-fire, post fire and re-growth vegetation surveys, pre and post fire LIDAR data and satellite images have been taken in order for us to study and learn from the experiment.

These data are essential to assist us to better predict, control and manage for firestorms (induced or natural) in the future and will help to set realistic monitoring thresholds for bush encroachment and/or disappearance of tall trees, and for fire, so that park management can be informed with the best possible understanding in a difficult and changing world.


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Re: Burning Kruger 2010

Post by Flutterby »

October 16 2010 at 02:54pm
Sheree Bega
iol.co.za

Animals burnt in Kruger experiment

Many animals, including elephants, in the Kruger National Park were burnt during a weather experiment, in which an area of the park was burnt during a very dry, hot period.

More reports have emerged of wildlife being burnt in the experimental fire that authorities created in the southern part of the Kruger National Park (KNP) last month, but SANParks maintains that wildlife was chased out of the area and have instead blamed arsonists.

Last week, the Saturday Star revealed how several rhino had been burnt in the fiery blaze in the Afsaal region on September 15, which SANParks described as a controlled experiment to test the effectiveness of fast-moving, intense fire in controlling brush.

After the publication of the story, more visitors to the park said they had encountered several burnt and dead elephants – including a calf – impala and critically endangered ground hornbills in the past two weeks.

A SANParks statement sent to the media this week said before the blocks had been set alight, a helicopter had been used to chase rhino and elephant out of the area.

“Unfortunately in the days just after the experimental fires, which burnt about 12 000ha, an arsonist walked through the southern Kruger Park and set numerous fires. This and other arson fires this year have burnt 67 000ha in the southern KNP.

“In spite of precautions taken, such as extensive firebreaks created for animals to move into, some animals were burnt in the experimental fire and a number of animals were also burned in the arson fires.”

Rangers flew over the blocks in the days after the fire to look for injured game that might have had to be put down, said the spokesman.

A visitor, who did not want be named for fear of being victimised, said he had seen numerous badly burnt animals last week.

“We were on the dirt road next to Afsaal on our way to Lower Sabie when we saw one elephant and dead birds – hornbills next to the road. There were also small antelope like duikers. One side of the elephant looked like acid had been thrown on to it.”

Another park visitor, Russell Bruton, lamented the lack of accountability evidenced in the “cavalier” responses from officials quoted in last week’s story. This implied officials were happy to repeat the “disastrous experiment”, he said.

“They proffer that animals must get out the way because fire is natural, totally ignoring the fact this fire was intentionally set to be so intense only flighted birds could escape.

“What of breeding herds of elephant with calves, of which the cow in these pictures was probably a part; where is her calf; where are the others? Or rhino, or buffalo, or anything else with young?”

Park visitor Teresa Agenbag said her sister had come across a burnt rhino last week being hounded by wild dogs and hyenas. “It was distressed and wouldn’t let cars pass.”

The SANParks statement said the northern, eastern and southern flanks of the experimental fire blocks were left open to allow game to move out ahead of the fire front. “In both blocks there were also a number of sodic sites (brak kolle) without grass – areas that could act as refuge for game to move on to.

“In southern KNP in particular, it is obvious how woody shrubs are increasing in density in what used to be much more open areas because of a changing climate. Animals such as white rhino, zebra, wildebeest, roan antelope, tsessebe, cheetah and wild dog prefer open savannas and will benefit from more open areas created by the judicious use of fire by park managers.”


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Re: Burning Kruger 2010

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September 25, 2010
earthobservatory.nasa.gov

Fires in Southern Kruger

As iconic as Yellowstone National Park is to the United States, Kruger National Park is to South Africa. The park preserves a diverse landscape, historical sites, and a rich array of African wildlife. And just as in Yellowstone and other parks, land managers in Kruger are facing difficult decisions about if and how to preserve ecosystems in the face of a changing climate.
These images, taken by the Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s EO-1 satellite, show an experiment that tested the effectiveness of intense fire in controlling brush, which may increasingly encroach on grasslands as climate changes. Fire has long been an important natural force in maintaining the savanna, allowing the co-existence of trees and grass.
The top image, from July 31, 2010, shows a low-intensity fire in southern Kruger. The landscape is a combination of open grasslands, thickets of brush, and tall trees. In the images, the grasslands are an even tan color, while areas where woody brush is dense have a darker brown color.
Park managers set the fire to clear potential fuel around the edges of an area they intended to burn with an intense fire later in the year. On September 15—when weather conditions were suitable for high-intensity fire—the burn area was surrounded with dark charred land that would prevent spreading.
The next time the EO-1 satellite flew over Kruger on September 18 (lower image), the firestorm had occurred and the fire was out. Roads and waterways neatly define the fresh burn scar, indicating that the fire stayed under control as planned. The newly charred land is considerably darker than the older burns. The image will help park managers assess the impact of the burn and the potential for using intense fire as management tool elsewhere in the park.
Park managers believe heterogeneous landscapes—with variations between thick woody brush, forest, and open grassland—are good for the park because they provide a wider range of biodiversity, says Navashni Govender, program manager for fire ecology and biogeochemistry in Kruger National Park. However, some field data show that woody vegetation may be increasing. Most tree and bush species in the savannas are adapted to fire, so conventional low-intensity fires do little to reduce the woody vegetation. Park managers had to find another solution to maintain open grasslands.
A possible strategy for maintaining diversity is to set more intense fires that could burn and thin the brush. Land managers traditionally set fires under cooler and more humid climatic conditions, when the fires are much cooler, less intense, and easier to control. In 2010, park managers decided to start a raging firestorm in hot, dry weather to see how effective it would be in clearing out encroaching woody vegetation. The black burn scar seen in the September 18 image is the result of the intense fire.
NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using EO-1 ALI data provided courtesy of the NASA EO-1 team. Caption by Holli Riebeek with information from Navashni Govender, program manager for fire ecology and biogeochemistry in Kruger National Park.
Instrument:
EO-1 - ALI

Image

Image


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Re: Burning Kruger 2010

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October 2, 2011
earthobservatory.nasa.gov

Grassland restoration in Kruger

In September 2010, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite charted the progress of a prescribed fire in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Navashni Govender, program manager for fire ecology and biogeochemistry in the park, said the fire was an experiment intended to kill off woody shrubs and trees that have been encroaching on grassland where the park’s famous wildlife graze. Usually planned fires are low-intensity burns that are easy to control, but this type of cool fire could not kill the woody vegetation. So, park managers set a hot, intense firestorm.
Did the experiment work? On September 18, 2010, shortly after the planned firestorm occurred, ALI revealed a black, charred landscape. Nearly one year later, on August 20, 2011, the ALI acquired a new image of the park. This image, shown in the center, shows no sign that a fire ever occurred. Previously charred land is now indistinguishable from the tan land around it. Adapted to fire, the savanna grasses recovered very quickly.
The view from the ground is even more revealing. The fire killed the top of trees taller than three meters (10 feet), says Govender, but the grass came back entirely. Like the grass, the trees began to regrow, but for now they are small and tender enough for animals to eat. This photo, taken by Govender, shows impalas grazing on the new grass and young trees beneath fire-blackened trees. To completely remove the woody vegetation and restore open grassland, managers will set a second high-intensity fire after the grass and shrubs regrow enough to sustain the fire, says Govender.
The restoration project will help Kruger National Park maintain a patchwork of forest, thick woody brush, and open grassland. The mixed landscape supports greater biodiversity, providing habitat for the wide array of African wildlife found in the park.

Image

Image

Image


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Re: Repeat of High Intensity Burn Near Afsaal in Sept 2013

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Excerpt from Dr Mabunda's speech at COP, 28 Nov 2011:

Our national parks face a daunting future underwritten by the effects of clinging on obsolete
traditional conservation methods, climate change, air and water pollution, plundering of
natural resources by poachers, declining state subsidies, historical infrastructure
maintenance backlogs, accelerated rates of biodiversity loss and many other challenges. It
cost R1,4 billion to run the affairs of SANParks and this figure is growing annually. To
overcome these challenges we need futuristic ideas than personal biographies and the
previous century’s ideological paradigms. . Perhaps the only thing we know for sure is that
we must think and act in new ways.


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Re: Repeat of High Intensity Burn Near Afsaal in Sept 2013

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From Dr Joubert 2010:

Fire entered the discussion by way of my concern about the lack of vegetation monitoring. Not only elephants have an impact on the vegetation but also veld fires. At this stage it is apparent that nothing is being done to monitor the effects of what may be regarded as a highly unnatural fire regime. I am not sure whether the field rangers are still responsible for veld condition assessments, which could go some way towards monitoring.

I do, however, find it extremely strange that the Park justifies the closing of artificial water points to comply with a more natural situation but applies a fire policy that flies in the face of its mission statement to “maintain biodiversity in all its natural facets and fluxes …” Fire cannot be ignored as a very important natural process but its present mismanagement places a question mark over any other attempts to convince me that the Park is serious about abiding by the ‘facets and fluxes’ of nature.

Arguments I have heard in support of the present policy are to ‘create diversity’ and to simulate fires applied by rural communities over the past number of centuries. Neither of these arguments are relevant: on what basis can the Park justify its claim of ‘creating diversity’ in direct contradiction to natural processes, and why select one aspect of land use from earlier times and not all the other? Why not also try to simulate the effect bygone settlements had on the environment, their monopolisation (and poisoning) of water holes or their impacts on herbivores and carnivores?

The extent, intensity and effect of lightning fires are not only dictated by the fuel load but also by the prevailing conditions at the time of the fires, i.e. season, time of day (usually late afternoon) and atmospheric conditions such as temperature, humidity, wind, nitrogen fixation, etc. Lightning fires are frequently followed shortly after ignition by rain. This creates natural diversity in harmony with all the other natural processes. Of course, in times of high rainfall and the accumulation of heavy fuel loads fires can be severe, fully in accordance with the natural flexes and fluxes of the ecosystems. Natural fires usually occur during spring or early summer and in this way preclude burnt areas from exposure to prolonged high ambient temperatures and other factors that could negatively affect the vegetation, such as concentrations of short grass grazers at a time that grass growth is retarded. Such fires could also upset the established spatial and temporal utilisation of rangeland by herbivores.


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Re: Repeat of High Intensity Burn Near Afsaal in Sept 2013

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Regarding elephant culling:

South African National Parks chief executive, Dr David Mabunda, put a final word on SANParks’ standpoint on culling as it stands now, saying the organization was not planning any mass culling of elephants in the near future, a “heartless, impossible and unaffordable” idea as he called it. SANParks will need to cull animals in the future, he added, to control their numbers and preserve the park for future generations. When this decision comes it will “be informed by scientific research, management imperatives and prevalent trends as an option of last resort.”


http://www.krugerpark.com/blog/index.ph ... discussed/



So sometimes there is "fortress conservation", sometimes not? -O-


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