African Wildlife Environment Issue 75 FINAL

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

A mong my earliest memories was attending veld burning on the farm with my father. I was about five years old. I can still see the orange- yellow flames, hear the crackle of the fire and sense the not unpleasant smell of grass smoke. Burning was necessary to dispose of old dead grass, stimulate new growth and promote red grass, I was told. I was too young and naïve to agree or disagree, but veld burning, Themeda triandra (Red Grass or ‘Rooigras’) and farming on the contour were among my first land management notions. My next learning encounter with veld fire was in Professor Adolf Bayer’s botany class where he lectured us on the vegetation of Natal. The non-grass herbs, called forbs, were maintained by recurrent fire. A fascinating telling of this, titled The Ecology of Grasslands is in chapter two of Meredith’s book The Grasses and Pastures of South Africa , published in 1955, a treasured copy of which has pride of place on my bookshelf.

Another memory was in 1968, accompanying Rudi Bigalke to the Drakensberg reserves to decide annual burning plans with the field staff. It was my first meeting with Bill Barnes, warden of Giant’s Castle Game Reserve. Wherever in doubt about ‘to burn or not’, Bill was forthright. ‘It’s better to burn too often…it does less damage than occasional fire.’ On subsequent occasions I have regretted not following that advice, and often I have cursed others for withholding fire. Up to this stage I was a passive listener, but in the 50 years that followed I critically interrogated the wisdom. In 1969 I visited Tim Henderson’s farm, Elands Park, next to Giant’s Castle, to assess the status of partridges (Greywing and Redwing Francolins). I found birds common in grass that had been burnt the previous winter, but there were none in older grass. That set me thinking. Were the francolins dependent on recurrent veld burning, like Bayer’s forbs? If so, why?

Scarce nutrients are locked up in moribund grass

29 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 75 (2020)