South Africa: Kruger National Park prepares for the upcoming peak fire season!

South African National Parks (SANParks) has informed the public that it has embarked on controlled burns in Kruger National Park in preparation for the upcoming peak fire season. According to SANParks, this is a necessary action to avoid runaway fires which could lead to loss of life and damage to infrastructure. Every winter, as the dry season starts in Kruger National Park, fires are a common occurrence. Fires are a natural part of the environment in the National Park. The vegetation and animals have adapted to fires in this landscape and rely on fires to maintain a healthy, functioning ecosystem.

There is a relationship between how much rain is received during the rainy season, and how much grass grows in response to the rain, which then affects how much area is burned in the dry season. Fires occur when there is sufficient grass to sustain a fire, the correct weather conditions, and an ignition source. Considering the extremely high amounts of rain during the previous wet season, Kruger National Park is expecting more fires this winter (hot dry weather) compared to last year. For the last few years, roughly 15% of the park had burned annually. "This year we are expecting more than 20% of Kruger National Park to burn," says Abiotic Scientist, Tercia Strydom. The park monitors and maps all fires using both ground reports as well as advanced satellite mapping techniques", she concluded.

The majority of these burns in Kruger National Park will be conducted by National Park Rangers both for ecological and fire safety reasons. Due to the exceptional amounts of grass in the veld, the risk of large wildfires burning later in the dry season increases. Therefore, the Rangers have already begun burning fires earlier in the dry season to help break up the grass loads into smaller patches thereby reducing the fire risk.