Wildfires: The Garden Route in flames by Dr Neels de Ronde
The Garden Route in flames: Chapter V - Handling the impact of the wildfires on weed infestation A book by Dr Neels de Ronde
T
he following article is the forth in the series of excerpts from a book written by Dr Neels de Ronde, The Garden Route in flames. Dr de Ronde lives in Sedgefield in the Southern Cape, South Africa and has done extensive research in the field of land management and wildfire prevention. Dr de Ronde gave permission to Fire and Rescue International to publish the book in the magazine in separate sections for the benefit of all forestry and wildfire managers, fire protection associations and land owners in order to gain insight and an understanding of the intricacies that form the basis of such extreme fires and how it can be prevented, highlighting effective fuel management and fire prevention measures. 5.1 History of exotic weeds in the region Some of the worst weed problem areas in the Garden Route region have been burned over by the Knysna and Outeniqua wildfires. The impact on the degree of weed infestations after the wildfires has as yet not been properly assessed, but I believe serious attempts are being made to combat the weeds after both fires. The weed problems can basically be divided into two groups, namely: • Those weeds present in the fynbos covering the Mountains, including in the foothills (such as Hakea, Pines), and • The weeds present on the lower Garden Route plateau, mainly within the fynbos (Strandveld) growing on the sand dunes (such as Acacia spp., ie A. Cyclops). Volume 6 | No 2
Photograph 14 Picture of effectively-burning of Setaria weeds inside a mature Pinus elliottii stand in Mpumalanga (Photograph taken by unknown photographer). The Pine weed problem is related to off-site species planted in the foothills area of the Outeniqua Mountains, which produced an abundance of seed, spreading from there into the mountain fynbos. It will be mainly the fynbos in the Outeniqua Mountains which will be affected by the wildfire experienced there. Firstly, the younger Pine trees will still not be carrying seedproductive cones, which will be killed by this fire and not form anymore seeds in the future. Secondly, the older Pine trees subjected to the fire, will by now have been regenerated in abundance from the seeds shed by the ‘mother trees’, which most probably survived the fire. It is thus the last category of ‘seeder trees’, which should get attention from the ‘eradication teams’ as soon as possible, as this will not only be
the cheapest way of eradication of the weed by means of pulling out the seedlings with a year or two after the 2018 fire. This means that these ‘seeders’ have to be identified and mapped as a matter of urgency and be eradicated soonest, with followup checks on any regeneration left after first treatments. The weeds growing within the coastal fynbos (Strandveld) were mostly not exposed to the fires, with a few exceptions, such as the Featherbed Nature Reserve, near the Heads, Knysna. However, otherwise fire exposure to serious weed problem areas was a rare event in the Garden Route Strandveld areas during the 2017/18 wildfires. Subsequently, future weed problems can get attention soonest as these are mostly found in relatively restricted areas and should be FIRE FIRE AND AND RESCUE RESCUE INTERNATIONAL INTERNATIONAL || 59 59
