Bushfires in NSW

Topic 5
Bushfire recovery

STAGE 3 TEACHER RESOURCE
Years 5-6

A NSW National Parks ranger inspects a Wollemi Pine. Credit: John Spencer/DPIE

Red plant resprouting on a mountain gum. Credit: Adam Klumper/DPIE

Signs of life emerge from the ashes as the natural environment begins its recovery

Click on the image to watch timelapse videos of our parks recovering after the 2019-2020 fires.

Bushfire recovery is an ongoing process that requires input from individuals, the community and government organisations. It involves responding to immediate impacts, such as loss of life and damage to property, as well as longer-term impacts including damage to the natural environment.

At the end of this topic, students will be able to:

identify short, medium and long-term actions that help people recover from bushfires
describe how the natural environment recovers after a bushfire
name and describe different bushfire recovery practices carried out by by NSW National Parks.

Helping people recover after a bushfire

It takes a combined effort from individuals, communities and government organisations to help people recover from the devastating effects of bushfires. Short, medium and long-term action plans need to be agreed and implemented to ensure a streamlined approach.

Short-term recovery actions address the most urgent concerns as soon as bushfires are under control. This might be:

repairing public infrastructure – such as power, utilities, water and telecommunications services – as guided by the Infrastructure State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP)
clearing and opening the arterial, regional and local roads
providing community welfare services such as temporary accommodation, health and wellbeing services and financial support
safely removing debris and waste materials
completing impact assessments to inform future strategies and actions.

Medium-term recovery actions start to happen once the initial priority tasks are complete. This includes:

ongoing bushfire recovery support through government organisations, such as the Service NSW bushfire customer care service
repairing and rebuilding damaged properties using support and grants from the NSW government
clean-up activities for homes and businesses, with financial and logistical support provided as part of the NSW bushfire clean-up program.

Long-term recovery actions look to refine the policies and procedures that contribute to our ability to cope with bushfires, and are usually ongoing. This might include:

updating government planning rules
developing new resources to help citizens understand and plan for future bushfire risk
funding research efforts to better plan and prepare for bushfires in the future
providing ongoing mental health support for affected individuals and communities.

How does the environment recover after a bushfire?

Several factors affect the natural environment's ability to recover after a bushfire

The ability of the natural environment to recover after a bushfire depends on:

the intensity of the bushfire
the length of time between bushfires
whether bushfires are part of a place’s natural cycle of change
if the plants and animals living there have adaptations to cope with bushfires
the general health of a place before the bushfire.

Find out some of the ways plants and animals recover after a bushfire in the plant recovery and regeneration after a bushfire and animal recovery and care after a bushfire factsheets.

Looking more closely at the ability of plants and animals to recover after a bushfire, there are a number of issues they may have to overcome.

A large fire-affected area: If the extent of the bushfires is particularly great, it can take more time for animals to return to burnt areas from the unburnt habitats they fled to.
Loss of habitats: Really intense bushfires usually mean the loss of many more plants, animals and their homes in affected areas. This can result in a reduced number of refuges for wildlife, which adds to the recovery time.
A dry landscape: Drought conditions increase plant and animal stress. If a dry spell is lengthy it can increase recovery times due to a lack of resources.
An increase in bushfire frequency: Normal bushfire cycles are about 15 years in length. This means there should be at least 15 years’ recovery time in between significant bushfires. Any shorter periods of time between bushfires can lead to the decline – and possible extinction – of some plant and animal species.

NSW National Parks staff and volunteers play a key role in helping the environment recover after a bushfire

Making sure animals have access to essential resources is critical after a bushfire

NSW National Parks is responsible for helping animals, plants and the places they call home recover from a major bushfire.

Recovery initiatives in national parks involve:

rescuing wildlife, including supporting the rehabilitation of injured animals and wildlife carers by providing extra food, water and shelter
rescuing rare and endangered plant species (such as the Wollemi pine)
rehabilitating the landscape, including weed removal and revegetation
ongoing plant, animal and ecosystem recovery actions, including:
- weed removal control
- feral animal control
- setting up insurance populations for threatened animals affected by the bushfire (working with other organisations such as Melbourne and Taronga Zoos)
- supporting wildlife carers
- increasing the amount of national park estate to protect more fragile ecosystems and their inhabitants.

Recovery actions

Plants: Many NSW plant species have thick bark to protect their buds from the damaging heat of bushfires. New plants can then reshoot from these buds, which are usually located on the stem or roots of the plant. When damage to plant communities is extreme, rescuers will collect seeds to be safely stored and replanted elsewhere.

Animals: Providing food, water and places for animals to live is critical in the aftermath of a bushfire. This helps keep the animals nourished and safe while their natural habitats recover.

NSW National Parks staff members prepare a fire rehabilitation strategy to ensure only licensed wildlife rehabilitators and veterinary professionals provide this specialist care to injured wildlife. This minimises the risk of distressed animals causing any harm while maximising their chances of recovering, and makes sure no-one enters an unsafe area.

Government agencies provide additional funding to support wildlife rescue and rehabilitation efforts during this time, in the form of grants and special programs.

Find out what to do if you find a sick or injured animal.

Once the immediate actions are taken care of, local NSW National Parks staff will work with other responsible agencies to perform a risk assessment of the affected area. This helps identify the most effective ways to help the landscape and its inhabitants recover. These are known as ‘mitigation options’ and include:

soil erosion control
replanting of native vegetation
invasive species control.

Soil erosion control efforts are particularly important in water catchment areas or where river or wetland ecosystems will be affected by sedimentation.

Changes in plant and animal populations in fire-affected areas can lead to an increase in invasive, non-native species. These invasive species compete with native plants and animals for precious resources, such as water, and may destroy the chances of native species recovering. In these instances, NSW National Parks staff may conduct targeted weed and feral animal control programs to help restore native ecosystems.

Plants: Unless there has been an extreme bushfire, replanting in areas that are recovering naturally should be avoided. This is because many plant species have developed adaptations to recover from fire damage and disturbing their environment may disrupt their ability to recover.

When there has been an extreme bushfire, NSW National Parks staff may determine some assistance is needed. Planting native seedlings can help prevent plant species becoming threatened or endangered.

Animals: On-the-ground monitoring of species helps NSW National Parks teams understand the damage caused by bushfires. This is particularly important for species we know are sensitive to the effects of fire, such as brush-tailed rock-wallabies. Data collected from these monitoring efforts is used to create assistance action plans, if they determine help from humans is required.

In addition to NSW National Parks, representatives from the likes of the Taronga Conservation Society, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney and other non-government partners provide assistance during this stage.

Restoring national park infrastructure

In addition to helping the plants and animals within national parks and reserves, it is also the responsibility of NSW National Parks to restore national park infrastructure after a bushfire.

NSW National Parks aims to reopen closed areas and parks to the public as soon as we can after a bushfire. This can take many months, especially if there are damaged fences or where there are fallen trees that need removing.

If the bushfire has been extreme, NSW National Parks staff might need to replace park infrastructure such as picnic tables, sheds and toilets. Sometimes nearby properties are impacted by bushfires, destroying sheds, fences and livestock, and this also has to be taken into consideration when planning for bushfire recovery.

What can you do to help?

There are many organisations you can join as a volunteer to support bushfire recovery efforts.

NSW National Parks: We have a range of volunteer programs focusing on bushfire recovery – including bush regeneration and revegetation projects.
Wildlife rehabilitation groups: WIRES or Wildlife Health Australia are two good examples.
Charity organisations: WWF and the Australian Red Cross are involved in bushfire recovery.

Citizen science projects encourage amateur scientists and members of the public to get involved in research activities. By contributing data to bushfire recovery-related projects, you can help make sure decisions are made based on scientific knowledge. This helps support the recovery of our natural environment and direct future research projects.

Some examples of citizen science projects include:

SEED Citizen Science Hub – where you can register for updates on the Community Wildlife Survey
Saving our Species program – where volunteers, scientists, businesses, community groups and the NSW Government come together to secure the future of Australia’s biodiversity
reporting any wildlife sightings in bushfire affected areas to BioNet Atlas.