Revegetation of burnt areas: relative effectiveness of native and commercial seed mixtures

The efficiency of revegetation of burnt areas was put to the test with two different mixes of grasses, one comprising native species and the other, including Lolium multiflorum, sown by hand. Runoff generation and soil loss were studied over the first 20 months after the fire in seeded plots (two plots for each seed mix) and in an unseeded plot (considered as the control). The seeded plots showed a marked increase in vegetation, and 6 months after the fire ground cover was about 60 per cent in the plots seeded with native species. This ground cover value (considered to be the cover necessary for good protection against soil erosion) was reached in plots seeded with the commercial mix after 8 months and in the control plot after 14 months. Runoff volume was similar in all plots, but the soil erosion was reduced in both seeded plots by a factor of 6·5. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.