Globally, “wildfires” are seen as terrifying, destructive, unnatural, and something to be stopped at all costs. This sentiment is understandable when the effects of runaway fires are seen – for instance the large-scale fires in Australia, and those in the Northern Cape province in the past few years that resulted in thousands of hectares of grazing being lost, countless livestock burning to death, and infrastructure being lost.

But fire is, in fact, an integral part of the ecosystem. Savannahs and grasslands rely on fire (and herbivory) for their maintenance by preventing bush encroachment, and many plant species, including many fynbos species, rely on fire to germinate their seeds. In his study comparing historical and contemporary photographs of the Soutpansberg, Dr Norbert Hahn established that the Soutpansberg overall has become much denser in the past 150 years, with the loss of most of the Soutpansberg grasslands (and their associated species) through the removal of large grazers and fire from the ecosystem. We cannot reintroduce bulk grazers to the majority of the Soutpansberg (yet), but we can ‘reintroduce’ fire.

The EWT Medike Reserve is in the process of reintroducing fire as a management tool on the Soutpansberg range. Like many properties on the Soutpansberg area, most of Medike Reserve has not burnt in a very long time – in the region of three decades, whereas historically the Soutpansberg would have probably burnt every five to ten years.

This absence of fire has resulted in the build-up of a vast quantity of moribund material such as dead grass and other plant debris, resulting in unnaturally high fuel loads and poor grazing for animals. This build-up of dead plant material can result in intense, difficult to manage wildfires – as we experienced last year when a lightning strike resulted in a fire that burnt for two weeks on farms neighbouring Medike.

In an effort to start restoring natural ecosystem functions, Medike is implementing management burns – purposefully burning a section of veld under appropriate ecological conditions, but also under conditions where the fire can be safely managed. Rangeland burns can legally only be set between September and November in Limpopo province (and only with the necessary permits), whereas all firebreaks need to legally be burnt before the end of June.