Barbara Bowen

The tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala) woodlands of Yalgorup have a long history of grazing and frequent, low intensity burning. The local Aboriginal population burnt the undergrowth as often as every two to four years to assist hunting and promote good grazing conditions for their marsupial prey. Similar land management practices were continued by European cattle graziers until State forest and national park areas were declared (around 1930 and 1970 respectively). In recent decades, prescribed burning has occurred every 10 to 20 years in the State forest and intense wildfire has occurred infrequently in the national park. During this period, the understorey has increased in density and the condition of the tuart canopy has declined. This raises the question as to whether there is a link between altered fire regimes, understorey density and tuart decline at Yalgorup.

The tuart forest and woodlands contain a rich diversity of higher fungi. Because of the known benefit of symbiotic fungi that form associations with roots (known as mycorrhizas), this component of the Tuart Project is focussing on fungi in this group. Examination of the roots of tuart seedlings grown in pots of soil collected from under healthy tuart in the field showed that the most abundant type of mycorrhizas are those formed with higher fungi such as the toadstools, puffballs and truffle-like fungi.