The East Kimberley Community Fire Forum was held in Kununurra on 3rd November. The Community Fire Forum represents the efforts of locals to improve the management of dry season fires in the area and particularly the regular (every year), late dry season hot burns that cause so much damage to the vegetation and fauna, including the Gouldian Finch.
We presented a paper on “Fire and the Gouldian” that outlines how decades of inappropriate fire have impacted negatively on the breeding success and survival of Gouldians. Appropriate fire (early dry season, mosaic patch burning) is fine, but the current fire regime is the main reason the Gouldian is Endangered.
What we urgently need is a return to small scale mosaic patch burning coordinated at landscape scale across northern Australia – coordinated fire at the right time, in the right places, at the right scale.
Excerpt from the presentation Fire and the Gouldian