FireFire

Fire

Intense and frequent bushfires or prescribed burning in wetlands reduces the density and cover of vegetation that forms the core habitat of the Australasian Bittern. Wetlands in southwest Australia have lost vegetation habitat due to summer fires when wetlands are dry (DBCA 2018). Many wetlands that support Australasian Bittern have deep peat beds. Severe fires can burn these peat beds and convert wetlands from shallow wetlands suitable for Australasian Bittern to deep wetlands with only minimal fringing vegetation which do not support Australasian Bittern. The combination of a period of dry phases followed by fire resulted in the loss of an estimated 60–70 per cent of the reed beds in the Macquarie Marshes Ramsar site, New South Wales (Oct-Nov 2019). While the Marshes would not have been providing habitat for Australasian Bitterns at the time, given that the wetlands were dry, this fire event is likely to have detrimental effect on the rigour and extent of the reed beds in this system.

Individual wetlands may require different fire regimes depending on vegetation type and location. In Western Australia, without occasional fire, rush or sedge dominated wetlands may become too dense for the movement of Australasian Bittern (A. Clarke, pers. comm. cited in DBCA 2018). In Victoria, the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Area are working closely with Traditional Owners and other landholders to conduct traditional burning across wetland areas of the Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area. Wetland areas are being burnt using traditional patch burning techniques to enhance habitat for the Australasian Bittern, encourage the regeneration of native plant species and support cultural practices.