The Tasmanian Tourism Industry Council chief executive officer Luke Martin subsequently made a claim that 11,000ha of the world heritage area was affected.

[19] Jamie Kirkpatrick, a University of Tasmania academic, reflected upon the lack of inherent dispersal techniques on some of the flora species for regeneration as being a major problem.

[30] In February, the Australian Senate Estimates Committee was told that Tasmanian fire authorities turned down an Emergency Management Australia offer to send in defence assistance.

[36] A series of water bombing flights by aeroplanes from interestate occurred on 12 February on a north-west fire - it included a DC10-bomber, C130-bomber and an Avro RJ85 from Avalon Airport in Melbourne.

[41] Fire ecologists have stated that some of the dead trees killed by the bushfires were more than 1000 years old and part of a confined, Gondwana-era ecosystem unique to Tasmania that in some cases has never burned before.

Pictures of burnt areas and vegetation taken by conservationists have prompted warnings that the alpine ecosystem could be completely lost within decades unless more was done to protect it, given the increased risk of fire due to climate change.

He said the fire has burned about 1.2 per cent of the world heritage zone and was "not insignificant, but it could have been much worse" and "It's damn ordinary that you've got environmental activists almost gleefully capitalising on images, naturally caused, which could inflict significant damage on our brand, our reputation".

[44] The Tasmanian Government and University of Tasmania are undertaking research and environmental monitoring programs in burnt alpine and subalpine ecosystems near Lake Mackenzie to investigate long-term ecological impacts and recovery.

[45][46] Severely burnt pencil pine and Sphagnum vegetation showed very little recovery one year after the fires, however regrowth was evident in alpine heath, cushion plants and sedgeland.