Mountain Ash: Fire, Logging, and the Future of Victoria's Giant Forests

by David B. Lindenmayer, David Blair, Lachlan McBurney

This book draws together exciting new findings on the effects of fire and on post-fire ecological dynamics following the 2009 wildfires in the Mountain Ash forests of the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. It integrates data on forests, carbon, fire dynamics and other factors, building on 6 years of high-quality, multi-faceted research coupled with 25 years of pre-fire insights.

Topics the unexpected effects of fires of varying severity on populations of large old trees and their implications for the dynamics of forest ecosystems; relationships between forest structure, condition and age and their impacts on fire severity; relationships between logging and fire severity; the unexpectedly low level of carbon stock losses from burned forests, including those burned at very high severity; impacts of fire at the site and landscape levels on arboreal marsupials; persistence of small mammals and birds on burned sites, including areas subject to high-severity fire, and its implications for understanding how species in this group exhibit post-fire recovery patterns.

With spectacular images of the post-fire environment, Mountain Ash will be an important reference for scientists and students with interests in biodiversity, forests and fire.

248 pages, Paperback

First published February 29, 2016

About the author

David Lindenmayer is a Professor at The Australian National University. He has worked on the conservation of forests and their wildlife for more than 35 years. He has published 45 books and over 1100 scientific papers, and has broad interests in conservation biology, landscape ecology, vertebrate ecology, forest ecology and woodland conservation. He has received numerous awards and is a member of the Australian Academy of Science and an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow.