Fine fuel changes due to timber harvesting and frequent prescribed burning in eucalypt forests of southeastern Australia

Forests are managed for a range of ecological and economic values. Prescribed burning and timber harvesting are two widely used and often co-occurring forest management activities. Both may alter wildfire risk by changing fuel characteristics. Prescribed burning alters the amount and arrangement of fuel, which changes the probability of ignition and rate of fire spread. Timber harvesting may influence future fuel composition, amount and structure directly via the addition of harvesting residue and indirectly by changing stand structure and fine fuel accumulation. Whilst there is reasonable understanding of how fuel changes immediately after a single prescribed burn or harvest in temperate eucalypt forests, the long-term effects of frequent prescribed burning combined with timber harvesting are poorly understood. We used a long-term (similar to 25 year) prescribed burning experiment conducted in similar to 1000 ha of temperate eucalypt forest in southeastern New South Wales, Australia to determine the effects of a single selective timber harvest and 0-6 subsequent prescribed burns on the accumulation and composition of fine fuel (<25 mm thickness). It was found that fine fuel loads differed between harvested and unharvested stands, with 30 % less leaves and fine twigs (<6 mm) in the litter bed but 24 % more green understorey fuel up to 10 years post-burn in harvested stands. Frequent prescribed burning did not change total fine fuel load in harvested stands but did change fine fuel composition, with 4 times more leaves in the litter bed and 6 times less green understorey fuel in plots burnt at high frequencies (>4 fires in 25 years) versus low frequencies (0 fires in 25 years). Similar trends were observed in unharvested stands following frequent burning, however, there was 45% more leaves in the litter bed of frequently burnt, unharvested stands compared to frequently burnt, harvested stands. Our results suggest that irrespective of harvesting, frequent burning (>4 fires over 25 years) in temperate eucalypt forest may be a suitable strategy for lowering wildfire risk as it can reduce the amount of green understorey fuel, which may reduce flame heights and the likelihood of canopy fire. However, the decrease in green understorey fuel may be offset by the increase in leaves in the litter bed, which support fire ignition and spread. Our results highlight how the presence of timber harvesting changes the accumulation and composition of fine fuel post-fire, yet timber harvesting is currently not well integrated into many landscape fuel models, which often focus solely on time since last fire. Overlooking key attributes of disturbance history (timber harvesting, number of past fires), may jeopardise the accuracy of fuel models, and therefore the reliability of fire behaviour predictions.

Automated summary

Prescribed burning and timber harvesting are common forest management activities that can change wildfire risk by altering fuel characteristics. This study found that frequent prescribed burning combined with timber harvesting significantly affected the accumulation and composition of fine fuel in temperate eucalypt forests. However, current landscape fuel models often overlook the impact of timber harvesting, which may affect the accuracy of fire behavior predictions.