Burning Palm Trees

[amazondk]

I was up in Roraima state this week.  Roraima is the next north of Amazonas which borders Venezuela.  I frequently go there these days for business reasons.  I drove up to Boa Vista which is about 800 kms from Manaus.  The road is not the best, but being fixed up.  But, the traffic is not much, mostly trucks and buses.  This is still the dry season in Roraima, whereas we are in the middle of the rainy season here in Manaus.  About 200 kms north of Manaus, near the equator the climate starts transitioning into the Roraima dry to wet season cycle.  The rains should start in Roraima in from 30 to 60 days.  Therefore the pasture land which has been cleared along the highway is being burned to keep the weeds (mostly palms and secondary forest trees) from taking over the cattle pastures.  The land is normally cleared about 500 meters from the roadside.  Further inland is forest.  What I find interesting is the resistnce of plams to fire.  The main palm species found in these areas are the Inaja (Attalea maripa) and the tucumã (Astrocaryum aculeatum).  The buriti (Mauritia flexuosa) also gets burned as they are commonly within the pasture areas as well occupying wetter ground.  I think that these palms are actually benefitted by fire.  The heat may even help to generate the seeds when the rains come.  It is also evident that the majority of the palms survive as you rarely see burned up palm trunks in the landscape.

The google image shows the areas where I took the pictures.  Boa Vista did not show up at the scale the image is from.  But, it is 800 kms  north of Manaus.  Starting 200 kms from Manaus is the indian reservation which goes for another 200 kms approximately.  This area is totaly protected with forest on each side.  You also normally see some indians hunting, either with bows and arrows or shotguns.  One of the indians I saw on this trip had a parrot he had shot.  I don't think they are too good to eat.  My partner when he goes with me is always on the look out for bare brested inidan maidens which also appear every once in a while.

dk

Picture area

This is what the road looks like for much of the trip.

[amazondk]

Palms on fire

[amazondk]

After the fire

[amazondk]

Post fire regeneration and formation of secondary vegetation

[amazondk]

Areas of primary vegetation in the indan reservation along the roadside.

[amazondk]

As I got into Amazonas state it was the end of the day.  A storm was brewing to the east over Balbina lake, where I frequently go peacock bass fishing, and I stopped to take a few last shots for the day.  

The storm is in the background coming at me.  So, I quickly made it south toward home.  It was a beautiful part of the day.  The 800 km trip was a bit tiring, but the scenery makes it ok.

[Kathy]

Wow, Don, at first glance it turns my stomach to see all that burning.  But do you mean to say that they do this burning once a year?  In all the same areas?  Because those are some palms of height going up in flames!  And some survive?  I do know of course that some seed will benefit from the fire, but then if they burn again the following year, those babies are gone!

I can understand clearing along the roadside.  Do these fires ever get out of control?

Those are some striking pics you are sharing!  And the drive does look beautiful, if long.

[amazondk]

Kathy,

They may not burn the exact same spot every year.  Some of the land goes back to secondary secondary vegetation, which is pretty quick.  Normally the fire does not get into the forest, but this can happen from time to time.  In general the forest remains too wet for the fire to spread very far.  The palm trees are burned repeatedly and seem to do ok.  You can see the burn marks on the Attalea maripa and the lower leaves with fire damage.  The ones in the background also show fire damage.  The burning of grass goes pretty fast and I don't think reaches a temperature to do damage the tree to the point of killing it.  You only find the Astrocaryum aculeatum in areas that have been disturbed at one time.  And, it does quite well in areas that are regularly burned.  People even burn the trunks on purpose to get ride of the spines to make harvesting fruit easier.  Even though fire is not the most desirable method to control weeds in pasture lands I have not seen any economical and practicle alternatives for our area.  Not that raising cattle is the best use of the land anyway.  But, it is a fact of life.

dk

[bgl]

Don,

That's pretty fascinating! Is the scenery more or less the same the entire 800 km? And just as rural - or villages/towns along the way?

Bo-Göran

[Jeff Searle]

Don,

Thanks for sharing the pics. It's always sad to see the burning.

Ps,  wish I could join you for some bass fishing!

Jeff

[Al in Kona]

Thanks for sharing the photos DK.  And as Bo asked, are there very many villages or towns or other points of interest along the way from Manaus to Boa Vista?  How about north to the border?  How much farther is it from Boa Vista to the Venezuelan border?  That would be a trip I would think might be interesting to make one day.  Always wanted to see Angel Falls up that way some day!

[amazondk]

Bo,

The landscape changes quite a bit during the trip.  At about half way mountains start to appear and as you get close to Boa Vista the landscape opens up into natural savanna land called Campos Lavrados.  This is a really a new highway.  It was only paved in 2000 and as late as 1995 there was not land connection through to Boa Vista.  Rorainopolis the town where we are sourcing most of our wood did not even exist in 1995.  I think you go through 10 towns on the 800 km trip.  If the highway had no or few pot holes it would be a very enjoyable drive.  They are fixing the road now, but who knows how long it will last.  Since they don't control the weight of the trucks very well the road takes a beating.

Jeff,

I don't really like the buring either.  But, I don't know what realistic alternative there is to form pasture, if that is what the owner wants to do.  The lots here are all rectangles.  They are long and narrow.  An average lot would be 500 x 1000 meters.  Since only 20 percent of the land area can be converted from natrive forest to other uses only the front part will be touched.  If the area is burned successively for several years and grass is planted it will stay pretty much as pasture.  But, since the forest is so close plants are always invading the area and I guess there would be the choice of herbicides, which are a lot more expensive than fire.  If the area is planted with bananas, manioc or other crops the land use shifts.  After a few years normally the owner will let an area go fallow and revert to secondary vegetation and plant another part.  Then sometime in the future will go back to the secondary growth area, cut it and burn it and let the other part go fallow.  It would be possible to use mulches made from ground up secondary shrubs and trees, but few people have the equipment to shread the material.  There are definately better forms of land management than what is currently used.  There is a lot of work that has been done on integrated agro forestry practices which use the land much more effectively.  But, it is a big job to get people to practice this.  To me one of the interesting things is how well palms and other plants recover from fire.  Since man has been using fire for farming for thousands of years in the Americas I think that the spread of some plants have even adapted to it.  Like I mentioned above the Tucumã palm only seems to grow in areas impacted by fire.  I believe that even in my homeland, Montana the indians regularly set forest firs to open up the forest creating more favorable areas for game.  I think they also did this to stampede buffalo over the jumps they made to kill them.  

As to peacock bass, it is a 5 hour flight via TAM Miami to Manaus.  The area around where we have some land up the Negro River has big river peacocks in the season - Sept - Nov, they get up to 15 pounds.  Come down and go fishing.

dk

[amazondk]

Bo,

I posted this picture a while ago.  It shows the mountains in the area looking out over the Branco River.  This is about 650 kms up the road from Manaus.

This is looking out at what is called the Serra Grande over the  Mucajai river about 80 kms from Boa Vista.

Here is a scene from the Campos Lavrados savanna land.

[palmsrgreat]

Despite the burning sounding detrimental. It seems like it does more good than bad to the palms. It's almost like a natural selection for the palms that survive it and go on to produce seed at a later date. California and many other states perform prescribed burning to keep forest fires under control. I know this is an instance of creating clear area for farming, but I have confidence in this wasnt done things would be worse than they are.

Great pics and story Don, thanks for sharing.

[amazondk]

Al,

It is 220 kms from Boa Vista to the Venezuelan border.  I don't about getting to Angel Falls from there, but there are some incredible spots in Roraima.  One is Mone Roraima.  It is on the border with Venezuela and has a steep rock face along the southern exposure.  You have to go into Venezuela and then go back to get there.  Supposedly there are over 400 species of bromeliads native to the area.  The picture below I got from the Boa Vista government web site.  Another area which was recenty determined to be the northern most point in Brazil is Monte Cabuari park.  The second image is of a water fall there.  As I am spending more and more time there I definately want to explore the area better.  Roraima is a new state and actually is 70 percent in non private use.  That is 40 percent of the state is Indian Reservations, and 30 percent federal or state reserves.

I wonder what kind of palm species may be found in these areas.

Monte Roraima - 2875 meters in altitude

Caburai Park

[kylecawazafla]

Wow incredible photos! I'd really want to visit that area one day. One great thing about this board is that you get to see photos of places you wouldn't normally see. Is portuguese the main language there, or are there many tribal languages? Are there any fast food places in Manaus?

[amazondk]

Kyle,

Portuguese is what most everyone speaks.  But, in areas where there are a lot of indians you hear them speaking there native language.  One city, Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira has a mix of about 5 native languages and I think even has street signs in multipel languages.  In Roraima the Yanomami are in the northern part of the state.  Here in Manaus we have a few McDonalds as well as some Brazilian fast food franchises.  And , there are a lot of local sandwich shop type places that do a good business, especially at night.  

dk

[palmazon]

gotta admit you hooked me with the bluff of bare-breasted maidens...

some of the "after fire" pics resemble areas of Fallbrook or Vista after our recent low temps

[bgl]

Don,

Thanks for the additional information and photos. Looking at them you certainly get the impression that there are VAST areas that are still completely untouched. Must be quite an experience to drive through there!

Bo-Göran

[amazondk]

Palmazon,

Actually we saw a little group of teenage bare brested indian maidens by the side of the road on the trip before the last one.  There are signs frequently through the indian reservation advising people not to stop and not to take pictures of the indians.

dk

[amazondk]

Bo,

You really get the scale of just how big the place is and how undeveloped it is when flying over the area in a small plane.  Another thing that impresses you is that no matter how remote you normally will find someone living there.  

dk

[Bilbo]

Don

I can assure you that US members of the IPS had no hesitation in taking pics of topless young ladies in the Riviera a few years back!!!

Dont worry guys - no names.

Its perfectly normal here in Europe . . .

  . . .  and darn healthy too I reckon.

Regardez

Juan

[amazondk]

Here is an update on the fire damage to palms.  The rains have started and things are turning very green.  The palms still have dead fronds, but seem to be recovering.  What does not make a lot of sense to me is the property owner trying to create pasture on sand.  This does not work all that well.

dk

During the fire

April 26 - the place is the same, but the first picture is a little closer up.

[Kris]

Dear Don  

as usual the coverage was simply fabulos...and i have a question in some of the after fire vegitation photos i could see some plants resembling BOP's_Birds of paradise kind of plants seen in clumps amidts green grass.

don what will that be ?

thanks for those explainatery stills with past & present time

travel_you have lots of patience buddy.keep it up !

love,

Kris  

[amazondk]

Kris,

Those are Ravenala guianensis.  They are quite common in the area.

dk

[Kris]

Dear Don  

Thanks Man for that super fast reply !  

since they are attractive to my eyes.those are to be added to our garden.

Lots of love,

Kris  

[amazondk]

Kris,

Here is a picture of some of the plants in flower that I took a short time ago.

dk

[Zac in NC]

I thought it was Phenakospermum. Its a neat plant whatever its name is for the moment. Hehehe. It is, I just checked the Kew Monocot Checklist, which is the most up to date info I know of.

http://www.kew.org/wcsp....us=true

Zac

[amazondk]

Zac,

That is the name that I had, but I believe it is the same plant anyway. Because it is so common not many people plant it.

dk

[Kris]

Dear Don  

thanks a lot for that beautiful still and it was eyeful.

love,

Kris