Word for the month: caespitose

Posted on 22 June, 2011 by fobif

Fungi field guides can disconcert the newcomer with their specialist vocabulary–in fact, learning about fungi seems to begin with the learning of a lot of new words to describe both the structure and the habit of a particular fungus. Some of these words are easy to absorb–for example, some guides, when describing fungi which appear in large numbers in the same place as ‘gregarious’ or growing ‘in troops’. Some are more technical–like caespitose, a word used to describe fungi which grow with their stem bases more or less joined. An example is the Mycena pictured below.

A caespitose cluster of Mycena clarkeana, Stone's Gully, Castlemaine Diggings NHP. Photo by Bernard Slattery, 19 June 2011.

The same cluster seen from above seems tightly clumped–or ‘densely caespitose’:

Caespitose clump of Mycena, seen from above

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DSE fire consultations begin

Posted on 13 June, 2011 by fobif

DSE has invited FOBIF, along with other concerned groups, to submit our ‘specific fire management issues, concerns and priorities as they relate to Fire Prevention Works’ in our area. This is part of the process of producing the draft Fire Operations Plan for the Murray Goldfields District. This plan will be made available for public consultation in August.

We have submitted the following list of issues to DSE. They are not necessarily in order of importance:

  1. We have ongoing concerns about the detailed management of burns: the escape of the Mount Alexander burn, apparently through inattention; the severity of parts of the Wewak Track burn, which seems to have generated more fuel [in the form of massive stringybark regeneration] than it removed; the crude approach to track making and mineral earth barriers [Smutta’s/Hunter’s Tk link] and the destruction of old habitat trees [Helge Tk, Wewak Tk and Hunters Tk].

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It’s winter in Mount Alexander

Posted on 8 June, 2011 by fobif

It looks like we’re going to get another real winter: cold, and a sense of moisture in the air, whether as mist, drizzle or proper rain. There’s still plenty to see in the bush, however, even as we approach the shortest day–patches of persistent or early flowers [Spreading wattle, Cranberry heath, Hakea, Wahlenbergia, Parsons Bands orchids, Chocolate lilies] and lots of interesting fungi and mosses. And if you’re looking closely, you notice that even the commonest sights on the ground are worth looking at: drops of water on a leaf, for example.

Red Box leaf, Sebastopol Creek. Photo by Bronwyn Silver, 6 June 2011

 

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Alteration to DSE planned burning structure

Posted on 5 June, 2011 by fobif

In line with changes to its Code of Practice, and with recommendations of the Bushfire Royal Commission, DSE has reduced the number of fire management zones to four:

  1. Asset Protection
  2. Strategic wildfire moderation
  3. Ecological management
  4. Prescribed burning exclusion

Asset Protection zones are those which on the whole are treated most severely, ecologically speaking, because they are designed to protect human settlement. Nevertheless, all zones are supposed to be treated in a way which respects the environment: obviously there is no point in reducing the bush to a desert, or a dried out scrub even more fire prone than it was before.

DSE burned a section of the Diggings Park in Autumn 2010. FOBIF believes the burn was so severe in parts that it killed large trees, and caused massive regeneration of stringybark seedlings. The net result is probably an increase in fuel load in the zone. The picture was taken in November 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We persist in the belief that with sensible policies over a range of issues [including controls on building in fire prone areas] safety and ecological health can be achieved. It’s not yet clear how the new zoning system will affect practice on the ground.

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North Central Enviro groups meet with DSE over fire

Posted on 5 June, 2011 by fobif

Richard Goonan met with Alan Goodwin (DSE state wide burning program manager) and Damian Drum’s assistant in May to discuss fuel reduction issues. Richard is part of the North Central Victorian Combined Environment Groups [NCVCEG]. FOBIF has generally supported the positions taken by the CEG on the fire issue. Richard has also written a detailed account of the fire which burnt into Bendigo on Black Saturday 2009, in which his own house was destroyed. This account can be read  at https://www.fobif.org.au/admin/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Bracewell-St-Fire-Bendigo_Landscape-Attrinbute-Mapping-and-Analysis-Report.pdf.

Reporting on the generally positive meeting, Richard says that ‘It has become apparent that far better outcomes could be achieved if the [DSE] burn team had better direction about what or what not to burn, and if biodiversity assets were explicitly recognised… Greater emphasis needs to be placed on alternatives to burning especially in this region, where fuel levels are generally low and biodiversity impacts potentially very high.’

At the meeting Richard presented a CEG account of appropriate approaches to fire management. We produce part of it below, for the interest of our readers. FOBIF’s own position on fire can be read in our Documents section [see, for example, our submission to the Royal Commission at https://www.fobif.org.au/documents_2_2587903812.pdf ] . We believe that Box Ironbark woodlands can under some circumstances be very dangerous: but that each area should be treated on its own merits, and that our bushlands should not be treated in the same way as forests in other parts of the state.

‘Fire Management Principles [for Box Ironbark country]:

  • ‘Fuel layers are discontinuous (heterogeneous), generally lacking fine grassy fuels, with significant mineral earth fuel breaks such as roads, tracks, and utility easements throughout the forest.

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