Professor Andy Lowe was interviewed by Simon Royal for 7:30 SA about how removing sheep from the land for a period time could provide just the helping hand the land needs to fully recover after a fire.
Nine months after the devastating Eden Valley fire, Andy Lowe visits farmer Brenton Newman at Sanderston, 80km east of Adelaide, to see for himself the astonishing revegetation that has occurred.
Andy Lowe explains that the removal of grazing sheep from the land was the critical factor in the revegetation. In addition, the fire occurred at the right time of year, with an intense burn, and then over winter, there was quite heavy rainfall. These are ideal conditions for vegetation regeneration.
“If the regeneration had come through and then been knocked on the head by sheep grazing, it wouldn’t have done nearly as well.” says Professor Lowe. “If sheep can be kept off the property for a while longer, we are going to see fantastic reestablishment of native species.”
Dozens of native species have come up in numbers Brenton Newman has never seen before.
“This type of conservation “estate” returns large numbers of additional benefits to a range of the communities around here” for example:
- Support of pollinators
- Increase of tree cover has the potential to increase local rainfall