Analysis from the University of Tasmania's fire centre has found only three per cent of the destruction from the 2019 Tasmania bushfires was in areas of rainforest.
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Unlike much of Australia's native landscape, rainforest is not adapted to fire. The slow-growing trees, ferns, mosses and other flora, which evolved before fire-resistant eucalypts, suffer long-term, potentially permanent damage from bushfires.
The damage to rainforest this year constitutes about 6150 hectares, out of 205,000 total hectares burned.
"Based on our analysis, rainforest types that are known to be particularly vulnerable to fire [King Billy Pine, Pencil Pine] have largely escaped the fires to date [two hectares burned] but this will need to be confirmed with on-ground reconnaissance," the report, compiled by Dr. Sam Wood, said.
About 97 per cent of the fire-damaged area throughout Tasmania were in vegetation types expected to recover quickly, including sedgeland and buttongrass moorland in the Gell River, Southwest, and West Coast fires, wet eucalypt in the Riveaux-Pedder fires, and dry eucalypt in the Central Plataeu fires.
Dr Wood arrived at these figures through comparing vegetation maps, and the mapped perimeters of the major fires provided by the TFS.
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Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has committed to fast-tracking disaster recovery requests from the state government.
He said he had appointed an Emergency Recovery Liason Officer to work with the Tasmanian government in determining the extent of the need for Federal funding, and said he had "spoken directly" with Premier Hodgman about Federal support for the recovery of the tourism operators in the affected areas.
This in response to a question from independent MP for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, during question time in Parliament on February 13.
"Our government stands ready to assist Tasmania with any assistance that may be required in the ongoing bushfires," Mr Morrison said.
And Emergency Services Minister Michael Ferguson said the government will hold thank you functions for firefighters, as well as allowing them to accept donations of beer in a campaign organised by community member Adrian Morrisby.
"The timing and details of the functions will be determined when the bushfire season is over to ensure no-one misses out," he said.