The public is requested to exercise caution during an upcoming planned ecological burning exercise. SANParks, Cape Pine and the Southern Cape Fire Protection Association are gearing up to burn fynbos in the Harkerville Section of the Garden Route National Park during April/May 2015. So says Area Manager of the Knysna section of the Garden Route National Park, Johan de Klerk ‘fynbos is a vegetation type which is adapted to fire and more so, dependent on fire. Many species only recruit after a fire as fire stimulates seed release and germination. Without fire, there would be no fynbos.’ Fynbos in Harkerville was last burnt 20 years ago.
During the fire, areas of the popular Harkerville Coastal Hiking trail will not be accessible as well as the Kranshoek picnic area and the angling spots along the coast within the Harkerville section.
The controlled burn is a joint initiative between Cape Pine and SANParks and resources will be shared during the burn while being assisted by the Southern Cape Fire Protection Agency’s Working on Fire teams. SANParks vegetation ecologist, Dr Tineke Kraaij says fire does not only facilitate the recruitment of fynbos, it also propagates alien invasive plants such as pines and wattles. ‘Provision therefore has to be made for dedicated alien plant clearing operations after the fire.’
The interplay between different biomes or vegetation types such as fynbos and thicket is a key motivation to burn. She says ‘in landscapes where fire is kept out indefinitely, fynbos usually reverts to thicket vegetation or forest, as would be the case if Harkerville doesn’t burn. In order to maintain healthy and diverse fynbos, fire has to occur within acceptable limits of variation in terms of its frequency and intensity.’
She adds that fynbos fires should occur at intervals of 10 to 30 years. Natural fires typically occur during warm and dry weather conditions which result in high intensity fires, which is desirable from an ecological point of view.
In the Garden Route, fires may occur during any season, although fires need to be of sufficient intensity to facilitate good recovery of most species. In the Western parts of the Fynbos Biome with a predominantly winter-rainfall climate, fires mostly occur during the hot, dry summers. In the Garden Route with its all-year rainfall, hot, dry conditions may occur any time of the year and particularly with berg wind conditions in winter.
