Fire breaks

On the 21^st of June 2011 we took a drive to look at an example of fire breaks. We went to the van Rensburg avenue and firstly checked which parts we would like to use for fire breaks. Then we decided on the trees we would like to keep and we checked the depth that the blades are going to go.

Task:

We received a task to write a report on the removal of flora for fire breaks. We went to the sites and took a look at the before and after.

Why are fire breaks important?

A firebreak  is a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire. A firebreak may occur naturally where there is a lack of vegetation or "fuel", such as a river, lake or canyon. Firebreaks may also be man-made, and many of these also serve as roads, such as a logging road, four-wheel drive trail, secondary road, or a highway.

Purpose of firebreaks

Anyone with experience of veldfires knows that a firebreak cannot stop every veldfire.

There will inevitably be a time when conditions are so severe that a fire will cross a break, by spotting or otherwise.

We went to the site that has not been scraped yet and we looked for the protected species Violet tree. If we do not mark it and it gets bulldozed we will get a very big fine because it is on the red data list. After marking the trees that should not be bulldozed we went to the already bulldozed area to check if it went as prescribed. This is a block method used to prevent fires from burning a bigger area then made provision for.  The one side is done with two blade lengths and the other with only one because it is next to the dirt road. One blade is 3 ½ m in length and he scrapes off the top layer of about 20cm.

Cobus was there before us and he marked the Violet tree beforehand. This is a protected species and valued by the Venda’s for medicinal uses. Securidaca longepedunculata  is a slender tree with a light grey bark and propeller leafs.

  

We also noticed that when the area has been bulldozed little animals and bugs come out. We found a skaapsteker snake and little bugs all over.

Follow ups need to be done on the bulldozed area because they can turn into rivers or rain can easily cause erosion. If erosion occurs flow offs need to be made so the water does not cause as much damage. Some areas need the trim because they are in the climax stadium and they are not eaten by animals. If cut down they will return to the sub- climax stadium and then be grazed by animals because they will have a higher nutritional value.