Recovery actions

The program’s recovery actions included:

• Post-fire assessment
• Species assessment
• Threat management.

Post-fire assessment

Detailed mapping was undertaken to determine the extent and severity of the fire in each location using remotely sensed imagery and field inspections.

Fire severity was determined using the following classifications.

Severity class	Relative fire severity class description
Unburnt	Unburnt, canopy and subcanopy unchanged (within the mapped extent)
Low	Canopy and subcanopy unscorched, shrubs may be scorched, fire-sensitive low shrubs may be killed
Moderate	Partial canopy scorch, subcanopy partially or completely scorched, and/or fire-sensitive tall shrub or small tree layer mostly killed
High	Full canopy scorch to partial canopy consumption, subcanopy fully scorched or consumed
Extreme	Full canopy, subcanopy and understorey consumption

Post-fire impacts can vary across ecosystems. For example, a low severity fire in a rainforest can have catastrophic ecological impacts given that the flora and fauna have evolved over millions of years without fire and have very limited or very slow capacity to recover. In comparison, a low severity fire in an open Eucalypt forest can have limited or no ecological impact as these ecosystems are fire-adapted, with species having well-evolved strategies to recover quickly from fire, or even require fire to germinate their seeds or provide core habitats or food resources.

Potential ecological impact maps were developed for each of the four locations to account for this difference between ecosystems. A spatial assessment of the fire severity and the type of vegetation was combined. These maps helped determine where direct on-ground recovery actions (such as species surveys, weed control or pest animal control) were most needed.

Species assessment

Species surveys were conducted for priority threatened species to detect priority threatened species in burnt habitats. Unburnt habitats were also surveyed as a comparison, to see if they were acting as a refuge. Surveys were also used to establish broader spatial distributions, relative population size and breeding status where possible.

The following priority species were surveyed.

Threat management

Reducing key threats was critical to support the recovery of priority threatened species. This included threats in both burnt areas as well as unburnt areas which acted as refuges to help species re-establish populations or provide important food or breeding resources.

Protecting the unburnt refuges from future fires was a high priority. To improve access to these areas for a future bushfire emergency response, critical firelines were either installed or widened in key areas and weed control was undertaken along existing firelines to reduce potential fuel hazards.

Broader weed control actions were undertaken in burnt areas and included removing invasive grasses and weed species that readily colonise burnt habitats and alter their capacity to naturally regenerate.

Pest animal control or mitigation was undertaken with a focus on species that posed the greatest direct threat to priority threatened species including feral cats and foxes. The control of deer and feral pigs was also undertaken because they impact habitat in refuges and habitat under recovery. For example feral pigs turn over extensive areas of soil, damaging or eating seeds, germinating native seedlings and small native species.

A range of other species specific actions were undertaken to protect endemic populations of threatened species. included.

Outcomes

Phase 1 of the recovery program was completed in June 2021. The recovery actions delivered across the four, key bushfire-affected locations improved priority threatened species  immediate survival and long-term recovery.

Phase 2 of the recovery program was completed in  October 2022. Phase 2work continued delivery of important fire and pest management actions to support ecological recovery across the Gondwana World Heritage Area (Main Range, Lamington and Mt Barney National Parks) and the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park. In addition  ecological monitoring regimes for the priority threatened species and ecosystems were established, collecting critical post-fire data to track recovery.

Read the full reports that summarise the efforts and results from both phases of the program.

Learn more about individual recovery projects and specific recovery actions and outcomes.