UTAS Reserve Bushfire and Biodiversity Management Experiment

In collaboration with the City of Hobart Council, the Fire Centre is conducting a landscape experiment to investigate the effects of fuel management on fire risk and wildlife habitat. This project is funded by the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship awarded to Professor David Bowman, and is a PhD project undertaken by Will Redding and supervised by Calum Cunningham and David Bowman.

The experiment is taking place on the University of Tasmania Bushland Reserve in Sandy Bay, Hobart. This 70-hectare reserve consists of mixed Eucalyptus woodland and Allocasuarina verticillata forest, which forms dense stands and appears to pose a significant fire risk while supporting limited biodiversity. This situation typifies much of the wider Hobart landscape on drier sites and requires multiple management interventions.

To investigate management approaches, the experiment will use (i) mechanical thinning coupled with pile and prescribed burning, (ii) mechanical thinning coupled with chipping, and (iii) prescribed burning. Surveys of biodiversity and fuel loads, together with fire behaviour modelling, will inform the fire risk and biodiversity value of these vegetation states, before and after management interventions. The project will then assess the effectiveness of different fuel management treatments in reducing fire risk and supporting native wildlife.

The experiment has been codesigned with City of Hobart as an experimental test of their management approaches. The experimental findings will provide knowledge that will enable improved fuel management by them and other land managers and build social license for fuel treatment and habitat modification. In the context of ongoing climate and biodiversity crises, the project will provide much-needed knowledge about how we can best manage landscapes for risk reduction as well as biodiversity.