Mountain Ash: Fire, Logging and the Future of Victoria's Giant Forests

Description

Mountain Ash draws together exciting new findings on the effects of fire and on post-fire ecological dynamics following the 2009 wildfires in the Mountain Ash forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria. The book integrates data on forests, carbon, fire dynamics and other factors, building on 6 years of high-quality, multi-faceted research coupled with 25 years of pre-fire insights. Topics include: the unexpected effects of fires of varying severity on populations of large old trees and their implications for the dynamics of forest ecosystems; relationships between forest structure, condition and age and their impacts on fire severity; relationships between logging and fire severity; the unexpectedly low level of carbon stock losses from burned forests, including those burned at very high severity; impacts of fire at the site and landscape levels on arboreal marsupials; persistence of small mammals and birds on burned sites, including areas subject to high-severity fire, and its implications for understanding how species in this group exhibit post-fire recovery patterns. With spectacular images of the post-fire environment, Mountain Ash will be an important reference for scientists and students with interests in biodiversity, forests and fire.

David Lindenmayer is a Research Professor at The Australian National University. He has worked on forests, wildlife and fire projects for more than 30 years, and published more than 960 scientific articles and 38 books on these and other topics. He is widely regarded as one of the world's leading ecologists and conservation scientists. He has received numerous awards and is a member of the Australian Academy of Science, an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and an Officer of the Order of Australia. David Blair is a senior research officer at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University. Following completion of his degree in Forest Science from the University of Melbourne, he worked as a professional photographer, photographing endangered species in Indonesia and threatened environments around Australia. He then worked as an environmental consultant specialising in native and invasive vegetation and fire management before commencing with the Fenner School after Black Saturday. Lachlan McBurney is a senior research officer at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University. He graduated in 2001 from Deakin University with a Bachelor of Environmental Science. He has worked for the Fenner School since 2001, co-managing the Victorian Long Term Monitoring Program in the Central Highlands. Sam Banks is an ARC Future Fellow at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University. He has conducted research on the ecology, genetics and conservation of many Australian animals, from sea urchins in southern coastal waters to native rodents in the Kimberley. He has a particular passion for the biology and conservation of Australian native marsupials, particularly those of the wonderful tall eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia.

"The Mountain Ash forests of the state of Victoria are the world's tallest flowering plants, where David Lindenmayer and others had worked for 25 years before the tragic and catastrophic fires of 2009. As all ecologists in fire prone areas have to learn, a disaster can be turned into an opportunity, and this lavishly illustrated book surveys the experience of 6 years of post-fire monitoring. A case study for those interested in forests and fire, and perhaps the monitoring of major disturbance in general." British Ecological Society Bulletin, March 2016