Megjelent az EDGG Bulletin legújabb 21-ik száma. A bulletin kérhető e-mailben. A mostani Bulletinben jelent meg Valkó Orsolya elsőszerzőségével csapatunk vita- és gondolatébresztő írása az égetés mint gyepkezelési lehetőség alkalmazhatóságának korlátairól és előnyeiről. A cikk nagyban támaszkodik a korábban megjelent áttekintő tanulmányunkra, és célja a vita és gondolatok generálása a témakörben. A cikk megtalálható és letölthető a honlapomról.

Keep Your Eyes on the Fire: Prescribed burning as an old-new opportunity for grassland management

Abstract and motivation: We noted the burning interest concerning the application of prescribed burning as an  alternative grassland management technique at the EDGG co-organized Open Landscapes conference in Hildesheim during and after our presentation about the possible application of prescribed burning in European grasslands (Deák, B., Valkó, O., Török, P., Tóthmérész, B.: Fire as an alternative management tool – adaptation of North-American grassland burning practices to European grassland conservation. Open Landscapes – Ecology, Management and Nature conservation. Hildesheim, Germany, 29 Sept - 03 Oct 2013). Some conservationists highly welcome prescribed fires, while others are against it. These contrasting attitudes are because we (i) lack of proper scientific information on both short- and long-term effects of fires on grassland biodiversity, (ii) because of the generally negative attitude generated also by the international and national media reporting catastrophic damages in nature, human life and property caused by wildfires and arson, and because of (iii) the confusion of wildfires and arson with controlled and carefully designed prescribed fires. With the following forum paper we would like to stimulate discussion and generate further research activity in this topic, strongly referring to our recent paper published in Basic and Applied Ecology (Valkó et al. 2013) indicating the most important conclusions based on this carefully conducted systematic review.