Bush Fires - the beauty and the beast

It’s late January.  The short rains, which started so promisingly (and so early), are long gone.  The sun blazes down each day from a blue, blue sky and the wind howls – sucking the last of the moisture out of the soil.

We are headed home after a day in the office.  There is a dense bank of smoke hanging over the park.  As we reach home, we can see it clearly - great grey gouts boiling up from the burning bush below, the underside glowing a dull red in the fading light.

During the night, we keep an eye on the fire to make sure it doesn’t jump the boundary onto our side.  A couple of times, we have to back burn to stop its progress.  It’s all very destructive but weirdly beautiful too. 

Occasionally, birds fly out of the trees as the flames approach; unused to flying at night, they are disorientated and make crash landings in bushes a short hop away.

It’s controlled burning time – the National Park authority has decided to burn the area.  Ostensibly, this is to prevent a massive build up of dead grass and wood, which might lead to a catastrophic hot fire in future; and also to reduce the amount of parasites in the bush.

Hmmm. All very well in principle, but is it a coincidence that there are only 4 or 5 commonly found tree species in this part of the park?  The very species with hardy saplings, capable of withstanding fire even when small.   Surely diversity should be an important goal of park management? Regular annual burning of the same areas mean that the more delicate saplings just do not stand a chance of survival.

Also, this is the time of year when food is plentiful after the short rains: so all kinds of bugs, birds and reptiles are breeding, making the most of the windfall.  How many nests, eggs and hatchlings went up in smoke?

And finally, even the dead wood and fallen leaves and old grass have a role to play within the system, as protection, food, breeding areas. If it is burnt every year, this whole section of bio diversity is likewise gone

There is no doubt that burning is an important management tool for park wardens; it is equally certain that it is overused in many parts of Tanzania. With us, it is the same areas that are burnt each year.

Bush fires set for three days in a row and finally, one jumped our double firebreak, aided by a strong wind. Luckily, we had enough people on hand to beat it out before it took hold in one of the wilderness areas of our plot

On the plus side: what’s the betting that the ellies will pay us a visit soon?  With so much burnt, they should be looking for better foraging grounds… karibuni sana!