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KOALA ACTION NETWORK

KOALA/FIRE FORUM

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Background information on:

• Koala surveys and monitoring
• Fire management
• Indigenous contributions
• The January 2020 bushfire
• Post-fire koala surveys

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CHRIS ALLEN –AUGUST 2020

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Acknowledgement of country

We acknowledge the Djiringanj people of the Yuin Nation, the traditional owners of the land to which this presentation refers.

We acknowledge and respect their continuing connection to land, sea and community.

We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future.

�Acknowledgement of �Community Contribution

In grateful thanks to the many hundreds of local people who have contributed to the care of this landscape in so many ways.

Special thanks the local and NPWS fire brigades as we share our thinking about fire in this landscape.

Together we make a difference

Koala distribution surveys

• 2007-9. First koala survey undertaken using Regularised Grid-based Spot Assessment Technique.
• At each grid-site the forest litter under 30 trees was searched for koala pellets.
• 2012-14. >1000 grid-sites assessed at 500m intervals. Map left shows results:

a) orange dots = no koala evidence;

b) red dots = koala evidence;

` c) the bigger and darker the dot the higher proportion of trees with koala pellets

• Estimate of 30-60 koalas over 25,000 ha

A remaining issue -2014

Areas used by koalas overlapped with those designated as Strategic Fuel Advantage Zones (SFAZ)

An important question the koala project needed to address was whether SFAZ areas could be redesigned to provide greater protection to both life and property and koala assets

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Koala areas overlapping with Strategic Fuel Advantage Zones

Passive acoustic survey –spring 2016

• In spring 2016 FNSW scientists undertook a passive acoustic survey
• Recording devices were placed for two weeks at 1km intervals at 24 of the pellet survey grid-sites, 12 to the north and 12 to the south of the Murrah River
• Koala bellows were recorded 522 times at 21 out of the 24 sites, with one site yielding 120 calls
• Results suggested that the koala numbers may be higher than the estimate derived from pellet searches at grid-sites
• The passive acoustic survey results had site detection rates more than three times higher than that of the pellet surveys.

BIAMANGA NATIONAL PARK

Primarily through its ownership of the Biamanga National Park

the Aboriginal community is a significant stakeholder

in the conservation of the SENSW coastal forests koala population

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The Park is managed by the Biamanga Board

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A majority of its members are traditional owners

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PLAN OF MANAGEMENT YUIN BANGGURI MOUNTAIN PARKS�Incorporating Gulaga and Biamanga National Parks

“The Boards are keenly interested in traditional fire management practices and adapting and applying these practices as appropriate in the Parks”

BIAMANGA NATIONAL PARK�Fire Management Strategy

• The Biamanga Board’s Fire Management Strategy, approved in 2012, included guidelines to not undertake hazard reduction burning in areas used by koalas and try to create low-fuel buffers around them
• This was the first time such a strategy was developed for koalas in NSW

2017-18 Fire simulation study

• University of Melbourne undertook a fire simulation study to test the effectiveness of different SFAZ options
• Twelve options were developed by regional fire management staff
• Using the PHOENIX RapidFirefire behaviour simulator, Melbourne Uni modelled wildfire impact in the 15 worst fire-weather days recorded in the past 20 years from a wide range of ignition points
• They quantified the extent to which hazard reduction in each SFAZ option reduced fire impact to property and koala habitat assets compared with a benchmark of no hazard fuel reduction in the landscape

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Figure: The effect of fuel treatments on changing relative burn probability is compared between houses and koala habitat for ignition scenarios a) gridded, b) historic and c) weighted. Current risk values for 2016 (dotted line) and no treatment risk values (dashed line) are highlighted. Probabilities were normalised using BASE2026 (no treatment) scenario. Median values and 95% CI.

Option 5B: Current FMP with wider blocks, excluding koala habitat zomes

Conclusions from the fire simulation study

The study demonstrated capacity to compare effectiveness of hazard reduction options in reducing risk of wildfire impacts on human and ecological assets

There are limitations to the model:

• Heterogeneity of fire within burns was not modelled
• Treatments modelled probably over-estimate fuel reduction
• It assumes immediate fuel load decrease with hazard reduction burning, however some studies suggest a short term increase in fuels

These limitations were overcome by taking a relative risk approach

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• The establishment of the Murrah Flora Reserves under NPWS management enabled the option identified as the most cost effective in the study to be considered as the foundation for the Murrah Landscape Fire Management Strategy.
• Strategy needs more detailed consideration.
• Good potential to work in well and support Aboriginal aspirations to undertake cultural burning programs
• Any fire management strategy needs the deep engagement of local landholders.

Murrah Landscape

Fire Management Strategy

Aboriginal Cultural Burning

Great potential for cultural burning to improve koala habitat

Monitoring koala occupancy rates: 2016-19

In the monitoring program 65-100 grid-sites were re-assessed each year in one of 5 sub-sites.

Map right and those in following slide show distribution results from selected sites.

Period 1 results 2007-9

Monitoring koala occupancy�Conclusion –the population was probably stable through these periods

Period 2 results 2012-14

Period 3 results 2016-19

MONITORING CONCLUSIONS

Preliminary analysis indicates:

• There was no statistically significant (i.e. greater than 30%) increase or decrease in koala occupancy rates compared with previous periods in the study area
• The proportion of sites with koala evidence (termed occupancy rates) ranged from 11.2% to 22.4%
• These rates are low, compared with those from the Southern Tablelands and the Strzelecki Ranges where the survey same method has been used

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Passive acoustic survey # 2

• Passive acoustic surveys have since been undertaken in the remaining sub-areas at approximately the same time as the RGb-SAT monitoring fieldwork.
• Results are not available at this stage
• Review of the monitoring program is currently being undertaken by University of Canberra

JANUARY 2020 BUSHFIRES��An epic �time in the history of our region

Fire severity mapping showing that most of the koala study area was not burnt

Post-fire preliminary survey

Post-fire koala survey

Myrtle Creek Northern Biamanga NP

Lizard Rd –Biamanga NP and Murrah FR

SOME SURVEY RESULTS FOR MYRTLE CREEK AREA

• Fire intensity was severe on some upper slopes with northerly or north westerly aspects with many big old trees burnt out and/or fallen.
• A fuel hazard reduction burn undertaken in part of this area in 2014 appears to have helped reduce fire intensity and crown scorch.
• Along the main creek area there are numerous deep waterholes holding water for animals such as koalas to access.
• Also along the creek there was no crown fire and some of the spurs coming in from the north have not been burnt.
• Widespread evidence of post-fire koala activity, including female with young.
• Fresh pellets collected for DNA and disease analysis

GOLDEN NUGGETS

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Mum and joey scats

in burnt area

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One or two day-old scat

in burnt area

WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY

Just some examples:

• Hotspots workshops initiated by the NSWRFS and Nature Conservation Council in 2017 attended by >80 people
• Growing partnership between local brigades and those involved in koala surveys
• Road by road community meetings initiated by the Crossing Land Education Centre to support community cohesion in response to fire
• Growing contribution by the Aboriginal community to fire management through cultural burning