Managing Habitat With Fire

Using Fire to Improve Wildlife Habitat (N.C. State University Cooperative Extension)
Because of its many benefits to wildlife and its relative cost efficiency, fire is a land manager’s best tool to improve wildlife habitat.

Prescribed Burning in Southern Pine Forests – Fire Ecology, Techniques and Uses for Wildlife Management (Mississippi State University Extension)
Because Southern pine forests regularly experienced burns in the past, vegetation and wildlife have adapted to fire and actually benefit from the effects of prescribed burning.

Wild Turkey and Prescribed Fire in the Southern Piney Woods (National Wild Turkey Federation)
Compared to any other method of habitat management and manipulation for wild turkeys in the Southern Piney Woods, prescribed fire is by far the best, cheapest and most efficient.

Habitat Management Fact Sheet – Prescribed Burning (Indiana Division of Fish and Wildlife)
Prescribed burning is one of the most cost effective methods for managing plant communities and controlling natural succession.

Quail, Turkey and Deer: Fire Effects and Management Recommendations (Southern Fire Exchange)
Prescribed fire mimics the natural occurrence of historical fires in ecosystems that range from fire-frequented, upland pine savannas and mixed pine-hardwood forests, to wet bottomland forests that occasionally experienced fire.

Nests Under Fire: Does It Matter? Growing-season Burns and Ground-nesting Birds (Southern Fire Exchange) One concern with burning in the growing season (March to September) is potential impacts to birds that nest on or close to the ground.

Managing Your Pine Forests for Sunlight, Fire & Quail (National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative)
Northern Bobwhites once thrived throughout a vast grassland ecosystem of open pine forest across Florida and the southeastern US. However, slow but dramatic change has occurred in the condition of pine forests over the last 75-80 years. Today, bobwhites and pine forests are largely disconnected. Changes in land use and decades of incompatible forest management have converted millions of acres of open forested grasslands into closed-canopy pine stands that provide no bobwhite habitat.