Around every surviving tree is a ring of tiny bones where animals died as fire swept underneath the branches where they sheltered.

Mature cedars and palmettos are scorched and dead or dying and a slight smell of burning still lingers.

Yet about ten weeks after it was blackened by fire, Devonshire Marsh is a sea of bright green with plants already waist high.

Animals are also returning and researchers have found a species of fern thought to be extinct in Bermuda for 20 years.

The proliferation of plants in the marsh, whilst a welcome sign of nature's ability to claw back from the worst of disasters, is also posing a challenge to local conservationists.

What sort of management should be implemented on the marsh? Is there a need for it to be given a helping human hand? Can it and should it be turned back over the next 50, 60 or 70 years to the way it was before the cedar trees were virtually wiped out? James Conyers is finding some of the answers to some of the questions as he wades through Devonshire Marsh, braving poison ivy and bogs that try and suck at his Wellington boots.

He is conducting a study over the next 12 to 14 months to see how the marsh recovers and in what ways.

"There has never been a com prehensive study of the marsh following a burn.

"We are looking at whether it needs management, whether it needs a prod in the right direction or whether it needs management at all -- will the Mexican pepper take hold or will the fern push it out.

"There is not much doubt that it does need some management. It is the extent it should be managed that is the question,'' said Mr. Conyers.

Devonshire Marsh has a known depth of more than nine metres, or close to 30 feet, making it at least 7,200 years old.

It has also not suffered damage from dumping or landfill, unfortunately making it unique in an Island that has lost about 70 percent of its marshes at man's hands.

However it has lost its original natural canopy of palmetto and cedar, which has led to a proliferation of ferns and now the nearest place to the Devonshire Marsh of 40 or 50 years ago is Paget Marsh.

Devonshire Marsh also sits on Bermuda's largest fresh water lens and it is surrounded by man-made ditches built for mosquito control.

Barn owls use it as a feeding area and it is home to several native species of plants such as the ten day fern, once thought to be extinct on the Island, the cinnamon fern, false nettle and arrow leaf morning glory ivy.

There are also wax myrtles, bracken fern, tiny Japanese orchids, sedges (types of grass) and other grasses which are all returning following December's fire.

The marsh is carved into three areas -- one owned by the National Trust, another The Audubon Society and the rest privately owned.

Last December's three-day fire damaged the Audubon's part, about 20 acres, and it is recognised that any future management plan will need co-operation between all three groups, as well as Government, in order to succeed.

Mr. Conyers, zoo supervisor at the Aquarium and principal researcher for CRISIS (Conservation Research and Investigative Studies for Island Species), volunteered to carry out the study.

"Marshes and fires are compatible. Normally this sort of marsh would burn every ten or 15 years. This marsh burnt down to nothing.'' "I'm looking at the whole health of the marsh as it comes back. I have 80 sites which I will use to see which plants take off.'' Each site is centred in a different part of the marsh and in different conditions "so it gives a good idea of what is happening over the whole system''.

Every site will be mapped with every species marked down and at the end of the study invasive species such as the poison ivy and Mexican pepper will be pulled out.

Not all the sites are being marked at the same time with 20 covering the first four months, 20 the second four months and so on over 12 months.

Devonshire Marsh rising from ashes From Page 23 The study will see non-native species such as the Mexican pepper gets a toe-hold in the marsh or whether the ferns will squeeze them out and whether native and endemic species, such as the cedar, fully recover.

Whichever plants are the most successful will help decide if there is a need for management and to what extent.

Other studies are being carried out on the marsh including a pollen study to see which species are prevalent at different times of the year and in what abundance.

The pollen study also helps to see what exists, what is coming back and in what seasons.

Drilling is also taking place to see the abundance of plant species over the centuries as well as the frequency of fires.

The drilling is not part of Mr. Conyers' study, but he will look to collaborate to put together a comprehensive study of the marsh eco-system.

"All of the research could have long-term applications if there are future controlled burns or controlled management,'' added Mr. Conyers.

As well as the studies, Mr. Conyers and David Wingate, chairman of the Audubon Society and Government's conservation officer, are looking at a "first response plan''.

It would help to decide which areas were a priority for protection in the event of a fire, and would look to protect areas such as the Firefly Reserve.

Timber from this reserve was used by the Zuill family to build a ship called the Firefly and when the family donated the land to the Audubon Society they asked that it should be named after the vessel.

With its covering of cedars and palmettos it is closest to how the marsh was in the 1940s and 1950s.

But it was severely damaged by December's fire -- one 40-foot cedar is dead and palmettos, with badly scorched trunks, are struggling to survive.

Work is going on with the Parks Department trying to clear the area of dead wood and non-native and invasive species, helping to rebuild the original covering of cedars and palmettos.

It is not impossible that the canopy could be spread from the Firefly across the whole marsh.

Mr. Conyers added: "Whether that is the ultimate goal I don't know. It would take 50, 60 or 70 years.'' "But that is why we are trying to build the cover up. It comes back to the first response, such as protecting the Firefly Reserve, which was the canopy.'' Most of the money for the project is coming out of Mr. Conyers' own pocket and a few volunteers help with the work done only on Fridays and Saturdays from 7 a.m.

"I would like to think I am more of a catalyst rather than the whole show,'' says Mr. Conyers.

"Ideally through an affiliation we might find a school group that is interested in water line ecology so they could come out regularly to carry out long term research.

"It's unlikely to be a local team, but perhaps from a US College or University who would get long-term data.

"The research will also have a bearing on other similar, but smaller areas and will help in understanding their ecology and how to manage them.'' In the meantime the marsh will continue to grow back and soon the ferns will be seven or eight feet high and Mr. Conyers will be invisible as he goes about his work.

However it is his work that will help to preserve the marsh for future generations, perhaps helping to recreate it in a way many Bermudians will never have seen.

His work will also have important implications for the management of other marshes on the Island and could help preserve them for Bermudians as well as the wildlife that depends on them.

RENEWAL -- Last December three days of fire scorched 20 acres of Devonshire Marsh, but now, as these photographs reveal, it is a sea of green. Researcher James Conyers (above) has launched a study to determine whether the marsh needs man's help to fully recover, or whether the job should be left entirely to Mother BILL OF HEALTH -- James Conyers gives a palmetto the once-over.

ENVIRONMENT ENV