by Peter Stanton, Ecological Consultant and
Lisa Roeger, Bushfires Council of the NT. From Savanna
Burning—Understanding and Using Fire in Northern Australia,
Tropical Savannas CRC, Darwin 2001
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Examples of aerial photographs of Iron Range
National Park for 1970 (above) and 1991 (below).The rainforest can
be seen as the darker areas
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Overlaid digitised boundaries of rainforest in
Iron Range National Park showing the expansion of the forest area.
The original area in 1943 (dark green) has expanded to the larger
area (lighter green) in 1970 and 1991
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Rainforest in and around Iron Range National Park in far north
Queensland is expanding into the grasslands—a result of
restricted burning over the last half century.
Aerial photography’s fine resolution makes it useful for
monitoring this long-term vegetation change; photographs for the
Iron Range National Park area are available for 1943, 1970 and
1991.
Vegetation communities are delineated on the photographs, and
the line information is digitised for mapping and measuring
areas.
In a 140 sq. km study site in Iron Range National Park, the
rainforest increased by 33.2 sq. km between 1943 and 1970, and by a
further 4.4 sq. km from 1970 to 1991.
These vegetation maps are being used in planning strategies for
the management of the park and surrounding areas.
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Changes in the area of rainforest in Iron Range
National Park between 1943 and 1991
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