CSIRO PUBLISHING

www.publish.csiro.au/journals/ijwf International Journal of Wildland Fire 2010, 19, 737–745

Prescribed burning of thinning slash in regrowth stands

of jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) following
bauxite mining in south-west Australia

Andrew H. GriggA,B, Melanie A. NormanA and Carl D. Grant A

A
Environmental Department, Alcoa World Alumina Australia, Pinjarra, WA 6208, Australia.
B
Corresponding author. Email: andrew.grigg@alcoa.com.au

Abstract. Prescribed burning of regrowth jarrah stands established after bauxite mining is key to their integration into
standard jarrah forest management, but fire management in thinned regrowth stands has not been studied. Fuel loads in
10- to 13-year-old thinned regrowth increased exponentially with thinning intensity, doubling from 18 t ha
1 in untreated
stands (1500–2500 stems ha
1) to 37.4 t ha
1 in the heaviest treatment (400 stems ha
1 retained); however, litter and
standing dead vegetation were concentrated within 60 cm of the ground. Intensities of subsequent autumn prescribe-burns
increased with increasing fuel loads, but all burns were typically of low to moderate intensity o1800 kW m
1. Three
months post-burn, total fuel loads averaged 5 t ha
1, recovering after 4.5 years to 75% of pre-burn levels across all thinning
treatments owing mostly to dense understorey regeneration. Where no burning occurred after thinning, total fuel loads
declined to be comparable to the unthinned control after 4.5 years, averaging 20 t ha
1. Prescribed burns in autumn
following thinning are not recommended because a dense well-aerated and elevated fuel layer is reinstated, posing a future
fire risk. Burning 1–2 years before thinning may be an appropriate alternative strategy.

Additional keywords: fire management, fuel loads, litter, prescribed fire, understorey, vegetation structure.

Introduction
Fire is a natural feature of the jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata)
forests of south-western Australia, and prescribed fires have
been routinely applied by management agencies since the early
1950s to reduce fuel loads and reduce the risk and intensity of
wildfires (Abbott and Loneragan 1986). Prescribed burns are
undertaken in a mosaic pattern at rotations of 5–12 years
depending on the rate of fuel recovery, silvicultural objectives
and other considerations (Burrows 1985; McCaw and Burrows
1989). The majority of burns are undertaken in the spring
months around October, but burns are also carried out in autumn
(April) although these tend to be hotter owing to lower fuel
moisture and lower soil moisture contents at the end of the
summer drought (Burrows 1987). Fuel loads are an important
factor controlling the intensity of fires, and patterns of fuel
accumulation in the forest are well understood (Bell et al. 1989).
However, burning of logs and larger debris can cause extensive
damage to nearby retained trees (Burrows 1987; McCaw et al.
1997), and there can be complex interactions between fuel loads,
silvicultural activities and fire management (Stoneman et al.
1989). Indeed, current fire prescriptions were partially born out
of historical uncontrolled and widespread logging, which led to
increased fuel loads on the forest floor and negative impacts on
young jarrah regrowth from later fires (Stoneman et al. 1989).
Alcoa World Alumina Australia (Alcoa) has mined bauxite
in the jarrah forest since 1963 and currently mines and rehabi-
litates ,600 ha annually. The present aim of rehabilitation is to
re-establish a self-sustaining jarrah forest ecosystem supporting
a range of forest uses. Since 1988, forest stands dominated by the
native overstorey species of jarrah and marri (Corymbia calo-
phylla) with a diverse mix of understorey species have been
established (Koch 2007). Completion criteria have been devel-
oped between Alcoa and relevant stakeholders to define when
rehabilitation is successful and lease relinquishment require-
ments are met (DOIR 2007). Five broad principles were agreed
on for rehabilitated areas, these being that they meet land-use
objectives, be integrated into the natural landscape, exhibit
sustained growth and development, have vegetation as resilient
as the jarrah forest, and be capable of integration into forest
management practices (Elliott et al. 1996). Integration of
regrowth stands into current broadscale fire management is a
specific requirement, and several studies have now investigated
the reintroduction of fire and its management implications
(Grant et al. 1997, 2007; Grant 2003; Morley et al. 2004; Smith
et al. 2004). Smith et al. (2004) recommended that jarrah-
dominant regrowth should be protected from burning until these
areas are at least 8 years of age, allowing adequate time for the
development of the topsoil seed bank for understorey succession
and permitting trees to develop sufficient bark thickness to
withstand fire damage. Regrowth forests up to 15 years of age
typically support a dense mid-storey shrub layer, a feature
generally absent in the adjacent unmined forest. The resultant
fuel structure is central to differences in fire behaviour between
regrowth and unmined forest (Smith et al. 2004). Furthermore,
Grant (2003) found that autumn burning in regrowth forest
stimulated the re-establishment of dense stands of Acacia and

Ó IAWF 2010 10.1071/WF08201 1049-8001/10/060737

738 Int. J. Wildland Fire
other legumes, thereby potentially ‘recycling’ the fire hazard.
Therefore, fire management employed in unmined jarrah forest
may not always be appropriate for regrowth forest stands.
Completion criteria currently stipulate a maximum density
of eucalypts of 2500 stems ha
1 (see Grant and Koch 2007) in
order to promote desirable successional processes (Grant 2006;
Norman et al. 2006). However, ,4000 ha of heavily stocked
stands with tree densities of up to 8000 stems ha
1 exist in
regrowth stands that pre-date this requirement (Grant et al.
2007). Thinning is recommended as a management manipula-
tion to return these densely stocked stands to a preferred
successional state (Grant 2006), while at the same time addres-
sing wood production and water yield objectives (Grigg and
Grant 2009). There presently exists no commercial use for trees
from the first thinning cycle, meaning felled logs and other
thinning slash remain on the forest floor. Fuel loads and fuel
structure are altered as a consequence, with implications for
subsequent fire management and restoration objectives (e.g.
Roccaforte et al. 2008). However, no studies have been con-
ducted to determine the changes in fuel loads or structure in
response to thinning, the behaviour of fire after thinning, or the
patterns of fuel load recovery following thinning and fire.
A trial was established to investigate thinning and prescribed
burning as potential management tools to enhance the develop-
ment of jarrah-dominant regrowth stands and their integration
into the management of the surrounding unmined forest. Here,
we report the changes over a 4.5-year period of fuel loads
and vegetation structure in response to thinning and burning in
10- to 13-year-old regrowth stands. The specific objectives of
the current study were to (i) determine the effect of thinning
intensity on fuel loads and fire behaviour compared with
unthinned stands; (ii) determine the recovery of fuel loads and
fuel structure following thinning, or thinning and burning; and
(iii) provide recommendations for fire management in regrowth
jarrah forest where thinning has occurred or is being considered.
Methods
Study sites
The trial was located within the northern jarrah forest near Perth,
Western Australia. The jarrah forests are largely restricted to
highly weathered lateritic soils of the Darling Plateau on terrain
of low to moderate relief. The climate of the study area is
typically Mediterranean with cool wet winters and hot dry
summers. Long-term annual rainfall averages ,1200 mm. The
trial was established within areas of the jarrah forest that had
been mined for bauxite and rehabilitated at the Jarrahdale and
Huntly mines, 45 and 80 km respectively south-east of Perth. All
sites chosen for the trial were established between 1988 and
1991 using standard procedures of the time (see Grant and Koch
2007), resulting in regrowth stands of similar composition and
structure.
Experimental design
The experiment was established as a factorial combination of
burning (two levels), thinning (four levels) and fertiliser appli-
cation (two levels), with each full combination of treatments
replicated in blocks in four separate regrowth stands, giving a
total of 64 measurement plots. For logistical purposes, no-burn
A. H. Grigg et al.
and autumn burn plots at each site were arranged in contiguous
blocks ,4 ha in size, separated from each other by mineral soil
access tracks. Within each burn treatment, thinning treatments
(1500–2500 stems ha
1 (unthinned), 1111 stems ha
1 retained
(lightly thinned), 625 stems ha
1 retained (moderately thinned)
and 400 stems ha
1 retained (heavily thinned)) were applied to
areas with approximate dimensions 130  80 m. Thinning from
below took place in January 2002, with felling of smaller trees or
those with multiple stems or poor crown development. Minimal
effort was made to move felled logs away from the bases of
retained trees. The heaviest thinning treatment complied with
the minimum stocking required under the agreed completion
criteria (DOIR 2007) of 300 trees with future sawlog potential
per hectare plus 100 marri trees with resistance to Phytophthora
cinnamomi, a soil-borne pathogen (Dell and Malajczuk 1989).
Cut stumps were treated immediately after felling with gly-
phosate (360 g L
1, 10 parts water to 1 part glyphosate), and
coppice regrowth was foliar sprayed in April 2003. Fertiliser
treatments (none) and 500 kg ha
1 di-ammonium phosphate
(DAP) with added KCl, Cu, Zn, Mn and Mo (DAP þ
micronutrients) were applied within each thinned area by hand
broadcasting in August 2002 (autumn burn treatments) or
August 2003 (no-burn treatments). Each individual treatment
replicate covered an area of 0.25 ha (50  50 m) with 10- to 20-m
buffers.
Vegetation structure and fuel loads
Permanent plots of 20  20 m were established in the centre of
each 50  50-m treatment area (total 64 plots). Vegetation
structure and fuel loads were assessed in November–December
2001 before treatment, shortly after thinning in January 2002,
two winters after treatment in August 2003 (1.5 years after
thinning) and again in November 2006 (ca. 4.5 years after
thinning). For plots subject to autumn burning, additional
assessments of fuel loads were made 1 week and 3 months post-
burn. All trees within the permanent plots were identified to
species, and measurements of diameter, bark depth and tree
height taken. Standing trees were not regarded as contributing
significantly to fuel loads and only tree stocking results are
used here. Conversely, understorey vegetation forms a major
fuel component and the vertical structuring of this layer (here
defined to include saplings of the canopy species up to 2.5 m in
height) was characterised using a modified levy pole method
(Smith et al. 2004). Levy pole measurements were recorded at
28 positions located at 2-m intervals across the diagonals of the
permanent plots. Dead and live contacts on the rod were counted
at 0.3-m interval classes to a maximum height of 3.9 m. At the
same 28 levy pole positions, litter depth was measured using a
gauge developed by Sneeuwjagt (1973). Lateral cover of
understorey was assessed in five 4  4-m subplots located at the
corners and centre of the main permanent plot. Cover of each
species present was recorded separately, such that it could be
possible for the summed cover of all species to exceed 100%
owing to overlap. Available fuel loads were estimated by col-
lecting all plant material up to 2 m in height from a 1  1-m
quadrat randomly located in each permanent plot. Litter,
standing dead plant material o25 mm diameter (Collins 1996)
and live plant material (o4 mm diameter) were collected
Prescribed burning in thinned eucalypt regrowth Int. J. Wildland Fire 739

50
separately. Fresh weights for each sample were converted to Unthinned
oven-dry weights by drying either the complete sample, or a Light
representative subsample for larger samples, at 708C for 48 h. 40 Moderate
All fuel load estimates are reported as means of the four replicate Heavy

Total fuel load (t ha1)

treatment plots. Crown cover was measured using a spherical y  44 e0.0006x

densiometer, calculated as the average of five readings taken 30 R 2  0.75

from positions at the centre and four corners of each permanent
plot. Readings were taken at the same times as for vegetation 20
structure and fuel loads, with an additional assessment of burnt
plots only in November 2002, 6 months post-burn.
10
Burning procedure, fire behaviour and soil temperature
Burning at all sites occurred on a single day in late May 2002 0
under mild temperatures (max. 238C), moderate relative 0 500 1000 1500 2000
humidity (27–38%) and light winds (5–17 km h
1). Surface Residual stocking (stems ha1)
(0–10 cm) soil samples collected before the burn to determine
moisture content, which can influence fire behaviour in the litter Fig. 1. Total fuel load in relation to residual stocking immediately
layer (Sneeuwjagt and Peet 1985; Grant et al. 1998), averaged following thinning under four thinning treatments. Mean and standard error
,10% moisture across thinning treatments at both mines. (bars) of four replicates in autumn burnt and no-burn treatment blocks before
burning are shown.
Burning commenced between 1230 and 1630 hours by using
drip torches to ignite a main fire front on the corner or boundary
line closest to the direction of wind, followed by lines of fire
50
around the perimeter of each burn block to back-burn toward Live
the flame front. Back-burns along the other boundaries, being Standing dead
mostly on the downwind outer margins of the burn areas, were 40 Litter
generally less intense and did not lead to unnaturally intensified
ha1)

fire behaviour towards the centre of the burn areas.

30
The rate of spread of the main fire fronts, wind speed (fire-
Fuel load (t

induced) and flame height through each treatment were visually

estimated by field observers and recorded. Fire intensity was 20
calculated using Eqn 1 (Burrows 1994):

I ¼ ðW
rÞ  ROS  0:516 ð1Þ 10

where I is fire intensity (kW m
1), W is the total fuel o25 mm in 0

diameter (t ha
1), r is the post-fire fuel residue (t ha
1), and ROS
is the rate of spread (m h
1) of the main fire front. W was
measured in January 2002 after thinning, and r corresponded to
the measurement 1 week post-burn, as described above.
Surface soil temperatures resulting from the fire were mea-
sured using thermocolour pyrometers. These were constructed
of 15  15-cm pieces of fibre cement sheeting each marked on
one side with a series of parallel lines drawn with heat-sensitive
crayons. Crayons with eight different melting temperatures were
used for each pyrometer, in the range 65–6008C. Three pyro-
meters were buried in each thinning treatment of the autumn
burn areas (four thinning  four replicates ¼ 16 plots), and
retrieved following the fire. The pyrometers were placed in the
soil such that the lines of crayon were vertical, with the upper
edge level with the ground surface. Heat of a given temperature
penetrating to a certain depth is recorded as melting of the crayon
line of the appropriate set melting temperature to that depth.
Results
Fire behaviour and fuel loads
The pattern of ignition and generally dense vegetation made
accurate recording of ROS and flame height difficult. Maximum
flame height was in the order 4–6 m but up to 15 m for brief
Unthinned Light Moderate Heavy
Thinning treatment
Fig. 2. Fuel composition (litter, standing dead material and live under-
storey vegetation) across the four thinning treatments, immediately after
thinning but before burning. Bars are means  s.e.
(1–4 min) periods in small sections where typically a dense
midstorey carried fire into the canopy, or where fire fronts
coalesced. In these cases, complete canopy consumption
occurred. Average burn intensities ranged from 120–700
(unthinned), 170–1000 (lightly thinned), 250–1450 (moderately
thinned) to 300–1800 (heavily thinned) kW m
1, characterising
all fires as low to moderate intensity according to Cheney (1981).
However, sections with crown consumption experienced higher
intensities of up to 6000 kW m
1 (ROS ,420 m h
1). Generally,
the surface 1 cm of soil was heated to a temperature of less than
758C by the fires. Greater heating to more than 1008C was
recorded in some pyrometers, but these were limited to the upper
0.5 cm and were unrelated to thinning treatment.
Total fuel loads before thinning averaged 18 t ha
1, and
increased exponentially with thinning intensity (Fig. 1). Fuel
loads averaged 21 and 31.7 t ha
1 in lightly and moderately
740 Int. J. Wildland Fire A. H. Grigg et al.

thinned treatments respectively, and 37.4 t ha
1 in heavily
thinned plots, which was double the level in unthinned stands.
Litter dominated the fuel composition (52–59%) of post-thinned
sites, ranging from 11 to 21 t ha
1 (Fig. 2). The standing dead
20
15
Total fuel load (t ha1)
fuel component increased from 7 to 16 t ha
1 in the more
intensive thinning treatments. Live plant material contributed
very little to available fuel loads regardless of thinning, aver-
aging 2 t ha
1.
Burning reduced total fuel loads to an average of 7 t ha
1
1 week post-burn (Fig. 3), with no significant differences
between thinning treatments. Fuel loads decreased further
during the first winter, averaging 5 t ha
1 3 months post-burn,
before rising again. Recovery was most rapid in unthinned plots
where total fuel loads were significantly higher than in heavily

thinned plots after 1.5 years. However, 4.5 years after thinning
and burning, fuel loads were similar across all thinning treat-
10
ments, averaging 15 t ha
1 (Fig. 3) or ,75% of pre-burn levels.
Comparison of fuel composition in autumn-burnt and no-
burn plots 1.5 years after treatment (Fig. 4a, b) showed that
Unthinned burning effectively removed the litter and standing dead fuel
5 Light components. Removal was generally higher as thinning inten-
Moderate sity increased. The increasing fuel load observed after the first
Heavy
winter (Fig. 3) was due mainly to increases in live vegetation
and, to a lesser extent, standing dead fuels (Fig. 4c). Understorey
0 regrowth in autumn burnt plots was strongly correlated with
0 1 2 3 4 5
Time since burn (years)
thinning intensity, with an understorey dominated by Mirbelia
dilitata, Senecio spp. and Trymalium ledifolium increasing
Fig. 3. Change in total fuel loads with time since burn for four thinning linearly with decreasing stocking (Fig. 5). Changes in mean
treatments. The dotted line indicates mean fuel load in unthinned plots litter loads were small, falling slightly in unthinned and
before burning. Bars are standard errors.

(a) Autumn burn (b) No burn

30
Litter
Standing dead
Fuel load (t ha1)

Live
20

10

0
(c) 30 (d)
Fuel load (t ha1)

20

10

0
Unthinned Light Moderate Heavy Unthinned Light Moderate Heavy

Thinning treatment

Fig. 4. Composition of fuel loads 1.5 years (a, b), and 4.5 years (c, d) after treatment in restored stands subject to
four thinning treatments and either burnt (left) or unburnt (right). Mean data are pooled across fertiliser treatments.
Prescribed burning in thinned eucalypt regrowth Int. J. Wildland Fire 741

moderately thinned treatments but increasing by 2.5–3 t ha
1 in
lightly and heavily thinned treatments.
In contrast to autumn-burnt plots, total fuel loads in no-burn
plots either did not change (unthinned and lightly thinned
treatments) or declined (moderately and heavily thinned treat-
ments) with time. By 4.5 years after treatment, all treatments
displayed total fuel loads close to the pretreatment level of
18 t ha
1 (Fig. 4d). Comparison of Fig. 2 with Fig. 4b shows that
standing dead fuels contributed most to the declines up to 1.5 years
after treatment, with slight increases in litter. By 4.5 years after
treatment, standing dead fuels had generally increased again but
litter loads had declined in all thinning treatments, returning close
to pretreatment levels of ,11 t ha
1 (Fig. 4d). In the no-burn
plots, there was no relationship between canopy tree stocking
and the live fuel component (Fig. 5), and there was no effect of
fertiliser application.
Litter depth
Litter depths 0.5 years post-burn were less than half the pre-burn
levels in thinned plots, but less so in unthinned plots (Table 1),
which experienced an increased contribution from scorched
leaves (Fig. 4a). Mean depth was higher in unthinned plots
compared with other thinned and burnt plots, although differ-
ences were only statistically significant 1.5 years after treatment
(Table 1). Depths for all autumn-burnt plots decreased over
time, except for the heavily thinned treatment, which showed
a small increase between 1.5 and 4.5 years. Litter depth also
declined with time in no-burn plots (Table 1), but with no sig-
nificant differences or trends among thinning treatments. After
4.5 years, litter depths in no-burn plots were approximately
double those of autumn-burnt plots for the same thinning
intensity.
Litter depth and litter load were closely correlated (Fig. 6).
The relationship between these variables in this study was in
good agreement with previous studies in regrowth stands fol-
lowing mining, with the exception of the three thinned but
unburnt treatments 1.5 years after thinning (Fig. 6). In these
three cases, litter fuel loads were greater than expected and
suggest a degree of compaction or consolidation in the litter
layer.

25
100

20
Understorey cover (%)

75
Litter fuel load (t ha1)

y  102.8  0.039x
R 2  0.89
15
50

10
25
Autumn burn
No burn 5 This study, thinned no burn plots
0
This study, all other plots
0 500 1000 1500 2000 Grant et al. (1998)
Stocking (stems ha1) 0
0 10 20 30 40
Fig. 5. Response of understorey vegetation cover to residual tree stocking Litter depth (mm)
4.5 years after thinning and either burnt in autumn or left unburnt. Bars are
standard errors of four replicate plots. The fitted line and equation shown are Fig. 6. Litter fuel load in relation to litter depth for mining regrowth stands.
for autumn burnt plots. The line of best fit (dotted line) is redrawn from Grant et al. (1998).

Table 1. Mean litter depth over time in relation to thinning and burning treatments
Different letters as superscripts indicate significant differences within a burn treatment and time (ANOVA; P o 0.05).
Litter depths were not measured in unburnt plots at 0.5 years

Years post-burn Litter depth (mm)

No-burn Autumn-burnt
Unthinned Light Moderate Heavy Unthinned Light Moderate Heavy

Preburn 17 16 13 18 16 16 20 18
0.5 – – – – 13 8 8 7
1.5 13 13 13 13 10a 5ab 5b 3b
4.5 11 10 11 8 7 5 4 4
742 Int. J. Wildland Fire A. H. Grigg et al.

(a) Unthinned Light Moderate Heavy

360–390

300–330

240–270
Height (cm)

180–210

120–150

60–90

0–30

(b)
360–390

300–330

240–270
Height (cm)

180–210

120–150

60–90

0–30
(c)
360–390

300–330
Height (cm)

240–270

180–210

120–150

60–90

0–30
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Mean number of touches

Fig. 7. Vegetation structure (contact with levy pole) across four thinning treatments (a) 3 weeks after thinning;
(b) 4.5 years after thinning only, and (c) 4.5 years after thinning and autumn burning. Bars are means of dead standing
plant material (filled) and live plant material (open).

Vegetation structure
Patterns in vertical vegetation structure with time were con-
sistent with those observed for total fuel loads. Thinning
removed the majority of the shrubby understorey cover, parti-
cularly in the moderately and heavily thinned treatments, and
increased the amount of dead material in the height range
0–90 cm (Fig. 7a). By 4.5 years after treatment, prolific
regrowth in autumn-burnt plots had developed into a dense
understorey up to 2.4 m in height in all plots subject to thinning,
and particularly the moderately and heavily thinned treatments
(Fig. 7c). The structure of live vegetation was consistent with
that observed for cover (Fig. 5), with increasing overall touches
of the levy pole with thinning intensity in autumn-burnt plots,
fewer total touches in unthinned and burnt plots compared with
unthinned no-burn plots, and fewer overall touches in thinned
no-burn plots relative to thinned and autumn-burnt plots
(Fig. 7b).
Crown cover
Prior to thinning, crown cover across all plots averaged 80%.
Reductions in cover after treatment reflected the intensity of
thinning (Table 2). Cover was significantly reduced in moder-
ately and heavily thinned plots compared with the unthinned
plots 0.5 years post-burn, and in all thinned plots compared with
the unthinned control after 1.5 years (Table 2). Crown cover
in thinned treatments recovered over time, and by 4.5 years,
Prescribed burning in thinned eucalypt regrowth
Table 2. Crown cover before treatment (0 years) and after thinning
and burning for four different thinning intensities, averaged across
burn treatments
Values in parentheses are standard errors. Different letters as superscripts
within a row indicate significant differences among thinning treatments
(ANOVA; P o 0.05)
Years after Crown cover (%)
treatment Unthinned Light Moderate Heavy
0 82.7 (1.4) 80.9 (1.9) 79.6 (2.3) 78.2 (2.3)
0.5 77.3a (4.6) 54.0a (8.0) 28.1b (4.5) 20.8b (3.4)
1.5 71.0a (3.3) 46.7b (2.0) 35.9b (3.0) 22.9b (2.6)
4.5 67.3 (3.3) 63.3 (3.6) 57.4 (3.7) 58.1 (4.1)
differences between treatments were not significant (P 4 0.2).
There was no significant response to burning alone after either
1.5 or 4.5 years; however, there was a significant (P o 0.01)
thin–burn interaction 1.5 years post-burn. At this time, crown
cover was relatively higher in autumn-burnt unthinned and
lightly thinned plots, but lower in autumn-burnt moderately and
heavily thinned plots.
Discussion
Thinning and the resultant logging slash in 10- to 13-year-old
stands increased fuel loads as expected, but the results indicate
that fuel loads are manageable and that thinning does not
necessarily contribute to a heightened fire risk for regrowth
stands. In terms of total fuel loads, the maximum load of
37.4 t ha
1 in the heavily thinned treatment was within the range
observed for similar-aged but unthinned regrowth stands.
Collins (1996) and Grant et al. (1997) reported total fuel loads
of 23.4–42.7 t ha
1 for 10- to 15-year-old regrowth sites, and
Smith et al. (2004) measured loads of 29.8 t ha
1 in younger
8-year-old regrowth. Although fuel loads in the northern jarrah
forest are typically less than this (7–22 t ha
1; Hingston et al.
1981; Bell et al. 1989; Morley et al. 2004), the post-thinning fuel
loads in the current study remained within the range of fuel loads
in which burns in regrowth forest have been successfully
undertaken in the past (Grant et al. 1997).
Thinning operations had the benefit of crushing and com-
pacting live shrubby understorey vegetation and dead standing
material, which dominate the vertical distribution of fuel up to
1.2 m in height at this age (Fig. 7a; Grant et al. 1997). In
unthinned regrowth stands, the prominent understorey layer of
mostly senescent Acacia material, absent in the native forest
(Grant et al. 1997; Smith et al. 2004), results in the formation
of dense thickets of dry, well-aerated and elevated fuel that
represents a high fire risk. Observations of the burns in this
study, and results from previous work (Grant et al. 1998; Smith
et al. 2004), have shown this layer is instrumental in carrying fire
into tree crowns, causing extensive crown scorch or consump-
tion. Thinning by felling helped to remove this layer (Fig. 7a),
and compact the litter layer (Fig. 6), both of which would have
reduced fire intensity (Grant et al. 1998; Smith et al. 2004).
Although fire intensity did increase with increasing total fuel
loads, intensities even in the heaviest thinning treatment were
generally low to moderate despite being conducted in autumn
Int. J. Wildland Fire 743
when fires are typically hotter (Burrows 1987; Grant et al. 1998).
Estimated intensities of 120–700 kW h
1 in unthinned plots, up
to 300–1800 kW m
1 in heavily thinned plots, were comparable
with intensities of 380–1820 kW m
1 reported for spring burns
by Grant et al. (1997), and lower than the 1100–8000 kW m
1
these authors reported for autumn burns. Smith et al. (2004)
recorded fire intensities of 2700–16 000 kW m
1 for an autumn
burn in 8-year-old restoration but in this case intensity was
deliberately increased by experimentally raising fire-induced
wind speeds. Soil temperatures recorded during the fires were
also consistent with cooler spring burn characteristics (Grant
et al. 1997). Thinning by felling thus had the effect of producing a
vegetation structure and fire behaviour more similar to the
unmined jarrah forest. There is some confidence, therefore, that
standard fuel types and aspects of fire management designed for
the native forest (Sneeuwjagt and Peet 1985) may be able to be
directly applied to these treated regrowth stands.
Burning reduced the total fuel load in 10- to 13-year-old
regrowth sites from an average of 20 t ha
1 down to 5 t ha
1
3 months post-burn across all thinning treatments, typical of
loads recorded after prescribed burning in regrowth stands
(Grant et al. 1998). In general, fuel loads were reduced to a
greater extent with increasing thinning intensity (Fig. 4a),
suggesting that either removal by the higher-intensity fire was
greater or recovery has been slower at the higher thinning
intensities, or a combination of both. After burning, increases
in total fuel loads were mostly due to regrowth of the under-
storey layer and standing dead material (Fig. 4a, c). Regrowth
was associated with strong recruitment of reseeder species, a
pattern observed after fire in the unmined jarrah forest where
obligate reseeder legumes contribute most to post-fire commu-
nity changes (Bell et al. 1989), and also in regrowth stands after
mining where strong establishment of Acacia spp. can occur
(Smith et al. 2000, 2004), particularly after autumn fires where
moister soil conditions in the winter and spring allow more
successful seedling establishment (Grant and Loneragan 1999).
Soil moisture is a key factor limiting growth in the jarrah forest
(Bell et al. 1989; Stoneman et al. 1996), and reduced competi-
tion for moisture from the tree canopy due to thinning is likely to
be important in influencing the strength of the understorey
response in thinned treatments. Because a dense, well-aerated
and elevated fuel layer is reinstated, forming a future fire risk,
autumn burns following thinning are not recommended. This is
reinforced when tree damage is also considered. Grigg and
Grant (2009) reported that autumn burning reduced the growth
response in retained trees after thinning most likely as a con-
sequence of cambial damage. However, such damage may be
able to be minimised by removing felled material from the base
of retained trees (McCaw et al. 1997), a strategy that was not
undertaken in the present study.
Burning before thinning may be an alternative strategy to
avoid the negative consequences of an autumn burn after
thinning. Understorey regeneration following burning in
unthinned plots was less than in thinned but unburnt plots
(Figs 4, 5). Therefore, by delaying thinning until 1–2 years
post-burn, reseeder understorey establishment success and the
risk of a ‘recycled’ fire hazard could conceivably be restricted.
This option has the added management benefits of improved
visibility and access for tree marking and thinning operations.
744 Int. J. Wildland Fire
Fuel loads would naturally be higher after the thinning operation
than would be the case after a post-thinning burn. However, it
appears that litter decomposition processes and ongoing settling
of standing dead material, while new inputs from the more
open canopy (Table 2) are disrupted, allows depletion of these
fuel components to some extent (Table 1, Fig. 4), presumably
leading to lower total fuel loads compared with a strategy of
thinning without burning.
Although spring burns are routinely conducted in the jarrah
forest, the effect of spring burns after thinning instead of
autumn burning was not tested in this study. Results from
earlier studies of spring burns in regrowth stands suggest that
understorey regeneration, at least, may be less vigorous. Grant
and Loneragan (1999) showed that understorey regeneration is
less prolific, related to lower survival over the ensuing summer
of seedlings germinated post-burn. Spring burns are also
typically cooler owing to higher fuel and soil moisture contents
(Burrows 1987), but the interactions with increased fuel loads
from thinning are unclear. Fire intensities from autumn burns in
the present study were comparable with those reported for
spring burns in earlier studies (Grant et al. 1997), yet tree
damage was still apparent (Grigg and Grant 2009). It may be
that the proximity of thinning slash to retained trees is the more
critical factor (McCaw et al. 1997), rather than fuel load per se.
Conclusions
Total fuel loads in 10- to 13-year-old regrowth stands estab-
lished after bauxite mining increase exponentially with thinning
intensity, doubling from 18 to 37.4 t ha
1 when thinned from
2500 to 400 stems ha
1. Burning reduced total fuel loads to an
average of 5 t ha
1 3 months post-burn. Although fire intensity
of autumn burns after thinning increased as a result of greater
fuel loads, intensities were comparable with typically cooler
spring burns observed in unthinned stands. However, autumn
burns following moderate to heavy thinning are not recom-
mended as they led to the rapid redevelopment of a dense
understorey dominated by the reseeding legumes or fireweeds
Mirbelia dilitata, Senecio spp. and Trymalium ledifolium, which
poses a future fire risk. Burning 1–2 years before thinning may
be an alternative strategy to reduce fire risk while restricting
both vigorous understorey regeneration and damage to retained
trees.
Acknowledgements
Larry Hantler supervised the implementation of the thinning treatments and
assisted with vegetation monitoring, as did Tim Morald, Carla Wilkinson
and Bill Freeman. Kristian Pollock, Rob Turner and the Western Australia
Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM, now Depart-
ment of Environment and Conservation) fire crews carried out the prescribed
burns. Two anonymous referees made constructive comment on an earlier
draft of the manuscript.
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Manuscript received 8 December 2008, accepted 16 November 2009