Jennifer Lavers, Ron (Doc) Reynolds, Hayleigh Graham, Zoe Bullen, Jennell Reynolds, and David Guilfoyle – Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation

Traditional burning by Indigenous communities has long been employed to prevent wildfires from devastating vulnerable habitats by undertaking low-intensity, mosaic burns which reduce fuel loads while having fewer impacts on species. This is particularly important given the increasing bushfire risk associated with global warming, drought, and associated storms and dry lightning strikes. In Western Australia, the frequency of fire on islands in the Recherche Archipelago off the coast of Kepa Kurl/Esperance is increasing, and already, it is common to have at least one bushfire event on at least one of the islands every two years. In the absence of traditional burning and other mitigation to reduce fuel load or contain fires (which is often impractical on remote islands), bushfires can burn intensely over many days, eliminating vegetation from most of the islands’ surface.

These islands offer refugia for native species that are threatened on the mainland, including the Gilbert’s Potoroo (Potorous gilbertii) and myriad plants, reptiles, and birds. In 2020, a bushfire ignited by dry lightning cleared vegetation from ~70% of Figure of Eight Island and caused the mortality of potentially 1000s of Short-tailed Shearwaters (Ardenna tenuirostris) breeding on the island, and likely many other species. Follow up surveys 24 months post-burn found no evidence the shearwaters are returning to the island. This is likely due to significant damage to the burrows during the fire, but also in the aftermath. Entire colonies were covered over by eroded soil: our team accidentally crushed old burrows not realising they were there as they had been buried and hidden by eroded sediment. Despite substantial re-growth of vegetation, the plant composition is altered (some areas have substantial weed cover) and their roots are not yet fully established. Soils are likely too unstable, warm, and/or dry to support burrowing birds as most plants are small (≤1 m tall) and donot provide adequate shade. Our surveys suggest recovery will continue to be slow over the next few years. Thus, there is a clear need to develop mechanisms that can prevent or mitigate fire impacts in the future.

The Traditional Owners of the Esperance region, collectively the Wudjari, are today represented by the Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation (ETNTAC). We are working to reinstate a program of cultural burning regimes across this region, including the islands. In particular, we are investigating whether traditional fire regimes can reduce the impact and intensity of bushfires (from lightning strike) in order to protect key cultural and natural history assets, including breeding seabird populations.

Jennifer Lavers, Hayleigh Graham and Zoe Bullen undertake a survey of Figure of Eight Island

This important project has impact in two key areas. First, natural history data are limited in the Recherche Archipelago. Robust or recent estimates of seabird population size or breeding success are sparse, and there are no data on bushfire impacts for most species (e.g., mortalities), or in relation to ecosystem recovery (with the exception of our 2022 study on Figure of Eight Island). Second, our project emphasizes reinstatement of cultural practices, as this relates to successive periods of colonial violence, forced displacement from traditional lands, segregation, and successive government policies that aimed to control the lives of this community. Islands in the Recherche Archipelago have evidence of human occupation extending back at least 13,000 years before the present. Thus, these areas were also once managed with cultural burning, and the restoration of this practice will return the islands and Wudjari community to a more natural state.

Key reference:

Lavers, J.L., Carey, G.R., Guilfoyle, D.R. and Reynolds, R. 2022. Impact of bushfires on seabird breeding islands in southwest Australia: a case study for developing a community-based model in adaptive management. Human Ecology 50, 781–791. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-022-00338-0