Saturday, September 08, 2007

Backburning in Kakadu, Australia



I've come across a lot of 'backburning' while travelling through the Outback. These are controlled fires deliberated started to regenerate areas by burning all the plants (and sometimes the trees which I find upsetting) so that the area is less prone to being wiped out by lightning as has happened in the past.

My guide tells me that 20 years ago the Europeans noticed the Aborigines were burning down a lot of forest and were told to stop. They did. The forest was left to grow untouched for a number of years until 95% of it was completely wiped out in a lightning strike.

No comments: