University of Canterbury researchers followed native woody plants for 17 months after the February 2024 fire on Christchurch's Port Hills. Broad-leaved Coprosma recovered best, with 16 of the 17 monitored plants resprouting. Highly flammable non-native grass re-established across the burnt ground faster than the natives. Paula Jameson says planting natives does little while those grasses stay around them, because fire keeps setting regeneration back. The Mt Ada site had already burned in 2017 and been replanted. The paper appeared in Forests.
University of Canterbury researchers examined native plants at a Port Hills restoration site in Christchurch after the February 2024 wildfire. Some young trees and shrubs were able to resprout despite heavy fire damage. The team followed native woody plants for 17 months after the fire swept through the Mt Ada site. That same ground had burned in the major Port Hills wildfire in 2017 and had been replanted before the 2024 fire.[1], [2]
Highly flammable non-native grass had grown densely through the restoration site at Mt Ada before the fire and re-established afterwards faster than the natives, leaving regenerating native plants exposed to fire again before they mature. Paula Jameson of the University of Canterbury School of Biological Sciences describes the pattern as a fire trap, in which repeated fires continually reset native regeneration. She says planting native trees and shrubs does little while highly flammable grasses and weeds stay around them, because fire keeps setting that regeneration back before it can become mature forest.[1], [2]
Broad-leaved Coprosma recovered best, with 16 of the 17 monitored plants resprouting, though resprouting varied widely between species and with the age and size of the plant, the intensity of the fire and the conditions immediately around it. The peer-reviewed paper appeared in Forests.[1]
