The Shy Feather Flower (Verticordia fimbrelepis fimbrelepis) that grows on Kojonup Reserve on Koreng Noongar Country in south-west Western Australia is one of just 13 known populations left in the wild.
A prescribed burn of part of this population was carried out recently in a joint project between Bush Heritage and the Department of Parks and Wildlife.
In a bid to revitalise the ageing plants a cool fire was carried out in perfect conditions and achieved an 80% coverage, which was ideal.
Adult plants are killed by fire, but their recruitment from soil stored seed is predicted to be prolific in the first and second winters following the fire.
Funding through the South West Catchments Council has enable us to erect a rabbit exclusion fence around the regenerating plants and this will be completed over the next few weeks.
Monitoring of the rare plant population is being carried out by the Dept Parks and Wildlife and myself as a Bush Heritage Ecologist. We'll also be monitoring other plants within the burnt area to track their regeneration.
This is the first time since we acquired Kojonup Reserve 20 years ago that fire has been used as a conservation tool and it's hoped that positive results will encourage us to use it in other parts of the reserve in the future.
A cool burn in ideal conditions. 
Rare Shy Feather Flower. 
