Philip Zylstra PhD Student School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences UNSW @ ADFA Canberra   ACT   2600 AUSTRALIA Phone: +61 2 6450 5595 Mobile: 0428 462 880 Email: philip.zylstra@environment.nsw.gov.au Location: Fire Technical Officer, Snowy Mountains Region National Parks and Wildlife Service Kosciusko Rd Jindabyne NSW 2627

Field of Study - Bushfire behaviour

Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Rodney Weber (PEMS)

Co-Supervisors: Geoff Cary, Malcolm Gill, Ross Bradstock, Roger Good

Research Topic - Forest flammability and fuel dynamics in the Australian Alps

Background

Fire management in the Snowy Mountains of south-eastern Australia has a very long and varied history, and the knowledge gleaned over the past millenia is too easily lost - this occurs primarily when the science behind the knowledge is not understood. When loss occurs it can result in a drain of knowledge from fire agencies, where practices specific to given forest types are discarded in preference for a "one size fits all" approach to fire, simplifying the issues down to a couple of very general indicators that cannot convey the differences in treatment needed between one forest type and another. The reasons the Ngarigo watched the activity of ants or waited for the flowers to drop from a certain tree are related to the particular response of a forest type to fire. In any forest, one species burns differently to another, and the combination of species, their size, arrangement and position in the landscape define the flammability of that forest. The aim of my work is to understand the dynamics of the forest that dictate how often the forest can burn, and how often this fire will be of high enough intensity to pose a threat to people or their environment.

The Project

The 5 year project is being conducted in cooperation with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service with funding by the Bushfire CRC and the assistance of local volunteers to construct a physical fire behaviour model using the following steps:

1. identifying and modelling the factors that control the ignitability, combustibility and sustainability of flame in different leaves
   
2. modelling the conditions under which flame will propagate through a plant of a given species, and
   
3. constructing a 3-dimensional model that will define the physical processes necessary for fire to spread from one plant to another and produce horizontal fuel connectivity or complete a vertical fuel ladder

These steps are being achieved through a combination of knowledge gathering from previous mountain land managers and Ngarigo people, experimental fires and laboratory work.


Applications

A forest-specific fire behaviour model such as this will have significant management applications, for example:

• quantifying where fire growth and behaviour thresholds occur for given forest structure and species compositions
  
• identifying how forest flammability will change as structure and species composition is affected through growth, succession, disturbance and climate change
  
• defining fire regimes that will reduce the flammability in strategic fire advantage zones for the longest and most effective period

The project should be completed by the end of 2008.


Publications

Gill , A. M. and Zylstra, P. (2005). Flammability of Australian forests. Australian forestry , 68 (2), 88-94
Zylstra, P. (2006) Fire History of the Australian Alps . AALC: Canberra. This publication can be accessed on-line at http://www.australianalps.deh.gov.au/publications/fire/history.html

The response of one forest type to two different fire regimes