Managing fire to protect the Endangered monsoon vine thickets of the Dampier Peninsula

Date: 13, Oct, 2021
Author(s):   Anna Lemon, Brett Murphy, Sarah Legge, Malcolm Lindsay, Louise Beames
Publisher: TSR Hub

The Endangered monsoon vine thickets of the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia are a highly biodiverse ecological community. These thickets are very sensitive to the impacts of fire and are threatened by recurrent high-severity fires in the mid to late dry season. The vine thickets are important to the Traditional Owners of the Dampier Peninsula, who have been working to protect the plant communities from severe wildfires and other threats. We used high-resolution remote sensing imagery to compare changes in vegetation cover and condition in the monsoon vine thicket patches over a 36-year timeline. We also measured the frequency of fires in the woodland buffer zone around each monsoon vine thicket patch. Our study provides evidence about the benefits of coordinated fire management and has also developed a method than can be used to monitor the effects of management actions into the future