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The small village of Elands sits on an escarpment surrounded by bushland and, remarkably, escaped unscathed from a bushfire that recently raged through the surrounding foothills.

Source : PortMac.News | Citizen :

Source : PortMac.News | Citizen | News Story:

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Remnant rainforest 'Oxygen Farm' helped save Elands village
The small village of Elands sits on an escarpment surrounded by bushland and, remarkably, escaped unscathed from a bushfire that recently raged through the surrounding foothills.

The nearby town of Bobin, on the New South Wales mid north coast, wasn't as lucky and houses and the local school were lost.

While weather and wind conditions played a part, local residents believe a block of protected remnant rainforest, known as the Oxygen Farm, helped save Elands.

The area of about 1,000 acres which backs onto Elands was bought by a group of locals around 30 years ago to prevent it from being used for logging.

Part of the land was turned into a conservation area and in 1993 The Oxygen Farm Association signed a voluntary conservation agreement.

"The name is a bit of a misnomer really, it's more of a carbon farm and biodiversity reserve, but we thought it was a catchy term," resident Mike Roze said.

"It's protected by the agreement, which says we have certain requirements we have to uphold — to prevent the invasion of feral species, we need to maintain it, we need to have a fire plan, we need to have a management plan."

'I was praying to the tree god'

Mr Roze said the wetter forest had helped slow the bushfire which raged through the region late last year.

"Our verandah looks directly onto the Oxygen Farm and we were quite anxious," he said.

"It has been a bit of a bone of contention over the years, because people in Elands were worried about having such a large natural growth on their boundary.

"But fortunately, when the fire came through our place it just trickled up through the Oxygen Farm instead of raging through because it's the wet area."

Mr Roze said because the land was remnant rainforest and wet sclerophyll, leading to dry sclerophyll, there weren't any large flare-ups.

He said firefighting crews were also able to shore up the firebreak between the Oxygen Farm and Elands.

"That was the first attack onto the Elands village; it came up through the Oxygen Farm but it was all very calm and very sedate, so I'm hoping there's a more positive attitude about the Oxygen Farm now."

The wet rainforest would change to a dry sclerophyll forest if it burnt regularly, Mr Roze said, so it could be an issue in future.

"We really are in climate change, this is really dry weather, this is the first time that fire has been through in a long time and it shouldn't have really gone through a wet rainforest.

"I don't think it'll ever return to normal and I'm fearful that this is the future and we're just going to have to learn to cope with it."

Jane Watson is another founding member of the conservation group and also lives beside the Oxygen Farm.

She said while the wet rainforest certainly helped protect Elands from the fire, luck also played a role.

"As a good atheist, I was praying to the tree god of the Oxygen Farm that they do their work and protect us — and maybe they have," she said.

"But, honestly, we were just lucky the wind was coming up the south side, and had it been 10 degrees in the other direction, it would have whooshed up the valley.

"But it may have to do with micro-geographical climates, that may have played a part."

Many factors influence the spread of bushfire

Melinda Losh, a bushfire management officer with the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, said it was a complex situation.

"Vegetation types can influence the rate of spread of bushfires as well as their intensity," she said.

"This is also dependent on other factors like drought and related fuel moisture, slope and aspect of the vegetation and other topographical features like watercourses.

"Other factors include the climatic conditions at the time of fire, for example temperature, wind and relative humidity.

"Additionally, there are differing characteristics between rainforest vegetation communities and wet sclerophyll forests that relate to overall fuel loads."

Ms Losh said increasing the frequency of fire in wet sclerophyll forests could increase the trend to drier and more fire-prone vegetation communities, but it was also dependent on many factors.

Bushfire recovery takes time

In nearby Bobin, work is underway to rebuild after the devastating bushfire two months ago.

Bobin Hall Committee president Peter Scouten said it was taking a long time for the community to recover from the trauma.

"It's amazing to see how we are recovering, it's an extremely slow process, it happens at a snail's pace," he said.

"The first impact after the fire is just total shellshock, and then you're sort of wandering around wondering: 'What do I do now?'

"You ring your insurance company, you get the assessors out and work out what's got to be done rebuilding.

"It's still ongoing, and there's a constant reminder that things are pretty much the same because every time I step outside all I see is blackened landscape."


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