Cool burns in broadleaf tea-tree woodlands

Cool burns have been happening in endangered broad leaf tea tree woodlands in the Cardwell region to limit the spread of non-native pine trees.

More than 130 hectares of woodland has been the focus, as organisations work together to better protect areas that are home to threatened species including the mahogany glider and ant plant.

Terrain NRM has partnered with the Cassowary Coast Regional Council and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service on the project, which is happening in the Dallachy and Damper Creek areas.

Helping an endangered ecological community

Broad leaf tea-tree woodlands are listed as an endangered ecological community by the Australian Government. They are found in high rainfall coastal lowlands and have a tea-tree canopy and diverse groundcover.

“These woodlands aren’t as well-known as our rainforests but they’re just as important,’’ Terrain NRM’s Tony O’Malley said. “They are habitat for a unique community of plants and animals – from ant plants, carnivorous plants and 36 butterfly species to frogs and larger animals like mahogany gliders and cassowaries.

“Historically they’ve been extensively cleared. Less than 20 per cent of the original woodlands remain. So we are working with willing landholders in key areas to support weed and pest control, and fire management.”

He said the threat of pine wildlings to broad leaf tea tree forests had been highlighted at a project workshop.

Pine wildling incursions

Pine trees are one of the few exotic species that can germinate in, and take over, intact native woodlands, and seeds have the capacity to take root after blowing on the wind from nearby plantations.

Cassowary Coast Regional Council’s Damon Sydes said the woodlands also included some early trial patches of pines for timber plantations, planted in the 1960s and 1970s.

“We are treating the big trees with cut and paint herbicide and then using cool burns to clear out the pine seedlings.”

Slow controlled burns

He said cool burns were slow, controlled burns with low flames, undertaken in the ‘sweet spot’ between sites being too wet or too dry.

“We go against the wind to keep the flames low enough to protect flowering grevilleas as well as epiphytes in the canopy,’’ he said.

“These fires also reduce fuel loads, preventing wildfires from coming in.”