My Lamma Forums

[zep]

The hillside behind Tai Peng ("Mt Panorama") has been devastated by fire. A large section of the hillside went up in flames at the weekend, destroying virtually all vegetation in its path. The many diverse shrubs and herbs that had regenerated over the past few years will not now make way to gradual tree cover - we are back to square 1 in the continual game of pyromaniac snakes and ladders.




Tracing the course of the fire down the hill it appears to have started in the vicinity of this grave site




Is this just a coincidence? If not, how can we educate people to be more careful in their ritual pursuits at grave sites? If it is a coincidence, how else might the fire have started?

[Alan]

[bbdog]

Surely if someone sets fire to the hillside and leave it unattended they are nothing more that arsonists. Stupid rituals like this should be seen for what they are nonsensical and feudal.

[zep]

It's not just waste and ugliness, but the possibility of any sort of tree cover on Lamma's hills seems to recede into the distant future like a mirage. Any covering of trees requires first grassland, then shrub cover etc, in several succession stages over a number of years. The hillside had progressed quite a way before this fire. This summer the rains will wash away more soil leaving more barren rocks. Very sad.

[Alan]

[The Rogue Sperm]

Wasteland, a good movie.

[Lamma-Gung]

Visiting the same location a few weeks later, nature is slowly recovering and the charred hillside is now covered with green shoots and new growth.

But it'll take years to reach the same state as before the fire. Also, a lot of the top soil on Mt Panorama has been washed downhill by the recent thunderstorms and the foothpaths to the summits have turned into washed out, "hollow" river beds...

[Foxy]

This seems to be coming back nicely. Until it gets back its full plant cover, it will be at risk for soil erosion, especially if heavy people keep walking on it . Lost soil takes about 50 years to regenerate, I believe.

[Lamma-Gung]

Congratulations, Foxy!

Your message was #10,000 on Lamma.com.hk!

10,000 messages in less than two years, since this website was founded in July 2002. I hope it won't take another two years for the next 10,000 messages!

Should we reminisce and celebrate?

[Foxy]

Great! What's the prize, then?

[Lamma-Gung]

Foxy,
What would you like as a prize?

How about a fine bottle of wine or a free lunch or dinner, my usual prize for the best submissions to the Lamma-zine?

[Samson]

[zep]

The Phoenix rises from the ashes! Phoenix hanceana to be specific, the spiny date palm found on many Hong Kong hillsides. This one appears to have survived the Mount Panorama hill fire and is producing flowers.



One or two other species seem to have survived the flames too. At the rate evolution works, it seems that pyromaniacs have been around for a long, long time. Here are a couple of Chinese Hackberry trees at the same location that at first seemed to have been killed, but have started to sprout again.




The area just above the graves seems to have fared a lot worse, and nearly everything seems to have been zapped by the heat.
.

[Foxy]

So Zep, do you think the upland flora has evolved to survive regular fires? That would explain the lack of natural forest on the hills. Don't forget that natural fires from lighting strikes could extend the time-frame for the evolutionary aspect. And the typhoons of course. Ecologists call this a disaster or disclimatic (quarternary) succesion, I believe.

[Alan]

[zep]

Foxy wrote:

[Foxy]

Thanks Zep, that's very interesting.

[nietzsche]

Dep't of Ecology and Biodiversity...nice one...

Alan wrote: "I very much doubt that there were natural forest fires here more than once a century or even millennium before people lived here."

But wait, doesn't Lamma have the oldest human settlement in Southern China? There is an archeological site dug in the 70s by a British archeologist who found tools and pots that were over 6000 years old right beside the top of Turtle Beach. But when you think about it it does make sense: sea turtles have been going to the same beach for thousands of years. Humans lived close by to steal the eggs - pure protein. I'm sure they burned fires to eat the eggs and would likely have let a fire or two get out of hand...

When I was first told that HK Islands mountains were bald I didn't believe it - until I saw photos. Incredible! But if one has hiked here on Lamma off the main trails you know how rocky it is and how the vegetation can become semi arid in the summer under a layer of rustic green...

[Alan]