https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/ ... 29756.html
Quote: How Australia's Indigenous people can help the country fight fire
Fire plays a central role in indigenous life and could hold the key to better management of bushfires in Australia.
I don't know anything about Australia's ecosystems but I do know that some ecosystems in California were adapted to regular fires. Until, of course, people started moving into them and any fires would have threatened those homes, so fires were suppressed and flammable fuels built up. I assume that, in some cases, this also resulted in changes in the vegetation and local ecosystems.
Quote: Aboriginal park ranger Trent Nelson walks through the bush, demonstrating traditional fire techniques.
He mimics the lighting of small spot fires on certain shrubs - fires his ancestors have lit for thousands of years before him.
"What happens, is when the fire goes through, a lot of these plants don't get impacted," he explained.
"The fire only gets to probably about [a foot] high as it goes through, so these are protected and they can grow. It also protects the trees in the canopy."...
When Aboriginal people use the word "country", they refer to the distinct region they come from, with pre-colonial Australia akin to an indigenous version of Europe.
And while catastrophic bushfires rage across much of Australia, the "country" of Djandak Wi is eerily quiet and peaceful....
Anyway, a quick search came up with this, from 2008, on the role of fire in California's ecosystems. https://baynature.org/article/the-bright-side-of-fire/
Though I remember being told about things like this in nature programs more than 40 years ago.
https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/nature/fic_firerole.htm
If I remember right (which is not certain ), there was something about there being no seedling/ replacement giant sequoias in the groves at the time because fires had been suppressed.
btw, I posted something about the respiratory virus outbreak in China the other day, but decided to delete it because it seemed too serious and gloomy for this thread. The outbreak is worrisome though. There's another case reported now, this one in Japan, and the virus has spread at least a little between people in China. And the worst part is that China is still hiding as much as possible, which makes me think it's bad there. A camera crew that filmed the fish market where it started had to delete their film before the police in China would release them.