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Hi there, I was just wondering is it at all beneficial to burn thatch grass or are we doing more damage. My SO and i cannot come to an agreement - please help.

I must first ask where is the patch of grass you would like to burn/not burn? As long as the grass is not on your lapa when you burn it I can't really see any reason for not doing so. Just take care in preventing a run away fire.

is not on our lapa, its actually a patch outside our house which the neigbours burn to keep crime down i suppose. My husband is determined that this makes the ground unusable but from my experince in kruger i believe the grass returns sweeter.

When you burn the grass you release all the minerals stored in the old grass, which the young grass can use again. Sort of instant fertiliser.

It is always good to burn grass as it encourages growth.

But in saying that, as far as I know one cannot burn grass on a piece of municipal ground. It is highly illegal and one could get a hefty fine for doing so.

Just be careful and check with the authorities first. You can always ask the municipal to come and cut the grass. I know one might wait forever for that to happen, but it is the safest way to go.

WTM is correct about not being allowed to start a fire on municipal ground. One is however also not allowed to burn garden refuse in your own garden without informing the fire station.

When a farmer wants to burn "garden refuse" the fire brigade should give permission and state on what day it can be burned and a fire truck must be in attendance. They take into account wind strength and direction.

And to the smokers: according to law you can be fined R200 for throwing a cigarette butt out of your car window, and this fine can be issued by a fire chief as well.

(The above was shared at a farmer's day three years ago by the fire chief for the Overberg region)

Hi thanx for the responses, i wont be burning it any time soon but we live next door to a veld and our neigbours are deterimined every time somone on the street puts it out they relight, i said it cant do any harm and my so said the land becomes unusable and this is where the debate started.

Fire won't make the land unusable. It actually fertilizes it and will encourage growth and replenish the grass etc.

Great thanx - cant wait to win the debate tonight when i show him the posts hee hee looks like dinner is on him.

Let me warn you first. Us men never likes to hear that we are wrong.

So in defense of your S.O. I will say that he was ultimately right in that one cannot burn that patch of grass for other law abiding reasons and that he was dragged into this argument with you unwillingly, and made out to be the one who is now all of a sudden wrong in a completely different argument all together.

I know this, because this is what women do for a living!

It might be good if one of the Mods can ask someone at Scientific service to make comments on the effect of veld fires on ecosystems.

One has to remember that when veld is burned on a continuous cycle without allowing sufficient regrowth that it can have a habitat changing effect resulting in certain plant species maybe disappearing.

Also the temperature of the fire can have a negative effect on seeds in the ground if it burns hot.

Also to remember is that burning removes plants that can help prevent the loss of top soil when it rains.

So yes burning will put nutrients back into the soil, allow new growth, remove old growth that might retard new growth etc but if done haphazardly can also be a "bad" thing.

These are just my observation with my very limited knowledge of ecology.

OK, so let us hear what the experts has to say. The practical application to the veld next door might be a little different but it will still be interesting to hear

I agree with Cois, but for all practical purposes the burning of your open veld next door to eradicate "veld slapers" once in the winter will do more good to the ecology than harm when it comes down to the regrowth of the grass. But in doing so many little animals might also potentially perish.

dam does this mean he may be right and i have to buy the dinner. Wildtuinman - gasp us woman are definitly not that manipulative .

Tell me something I don't have experience with. All women are manipulative in a way.

Your husband is right regardless.

Did you make a bet on this?

I say burning the veld once in the winter is a great method to replenish the growth.

If you gonna burn the veld repeatedly and allow rain to wash away the top soil in the rainy season, which seems to be even in the winter as well and when winds are gusting then you are not doing any good whatsoever. One can get very technical on this... depends on where you want to draw the line.

Different vegetation types flourish under fire regimes. Forests should burn very, very infrequently. Grasslands, on the other hand, can deal with more frequent fires.

Fynbos needs to be burnt every 20 - 30 years (the exact period depends on the veg type). Many fynbos plants become senescent (botanical word for "die") and a good fire re-starts the whole succession regime, from geophytes (bulbs) onwards. However, fires that are too frequent can exhaust seed banks and have a negative effect.

Acocks, in his influential work on the Veld Types of Southern Africa subscribed to the view that all vegetation types are basically aspiring to be forests. It is certainly true that if you stop burning savannah, it becomes more and more bushy over time.

Modern ecological practice is more concerned with maintaining biodiversity, and conservation management can use fire as one tool towards this end.