Abstract
In South Africa a major forest fire in 1865 destroyed some 24 km of forest beyond Port Elizabeth at Van Staden’s River, “… the whole of the trees are burned down. I counted no less than 30 bush-bucks roasted to death yesterday… the numbers of baboons and monkeys that must have perished, almost incredible” (Pullen in Brown 1875). Another observer noted such a fire had not been known since the farms were granted in 1815 nor witnessed by the oldest residents, “For miles the country is denuded of copse and forest...... roasted venison could be discovered everywhere; what have been found by the natives and Europeans exceeds 120; the feathered game has been destroyed in great quantities, also vermin…”. The Conservator of Crown Forests in the district considered the damage done at Van Staden’s River was not too serious from a forestry loss point of view, but a fire at Zitzikamma much more so.
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Spinage, C.A. (2012). Fire Part II: Effects and Ecology. In: African Ecology. Springer Geography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22872-8_7
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