Burning of Grass annual ritual to save ecosystem from wildfires

Simon Nare

If you see a gigantic smoke billowing out of the Golden Gate Highlands National Parks between Clarens and Qwa-Qwa in the northern Free State, do not panic and call the fire fighters, this is an annual ritual at play.

Park manager Paddy Gordon told Inside Travel that internal controlled fire-burning takes place annually this time of the year and this is important to minimise the loss of vegetation in the area as opposed to wildfires which normally burn hundreds of hectares of grass.

“Integrated fire management has to look at two things, the first is that the vegetation needs fire to renew, refresh and rejuvenate the vegetation. It needs the fire frequently, sometimes it needs more, sometimes it needs it less. So that’s one part of fire management.

“The other part of fire management is managing fire risk. So if you are sitting in a vegetation type that