Using Fire to Improve Wildlife Habitat

For thousands of years, much of North Carolina burned every 1 to 10 years either at the hands of humans or from lightning. More than 10,000 years ago, Native Americans began burning southern forests and grasslands to drive game, improve grazing conditions for wildlife, clear land for farming and improve their own safety. As early as the 1920s wildlife biologists recognized the value of fire as a tool to conserve habitat. Many of the plant and wildlife species of conservation concern in the South are dependent upon or assisted by fire. Longleaf pine forests, once occupying 900 million acres in the South, now only cover about 5 percent of their original range.

BENEFITS OF PRESCRIBED FIRE

• Help reduce the amount of leaf litter, downed wood and brush on the forest floor, which reduces the risk of wildfire. 
• Reduces the thickness of leaf litter, which allows the germination and establishment of desirable plants, including native grasses and many herbaceous plants beneficial to wildlife. 
• Burned forests contain substantially fewer chiggers and ticks. 
• Releases many nutrients into the soil increasing soil fertility.
• Generally lowers soil acidity, making nitrogen-fixing legumes more abundant; legumes produce seeds eaten by quail, turkey, and songbirds and often are browsed by deer and rabbits. 
• Can control plants that compete with commercially desirable tree species. 
• Frequently burned forests attain a park-like appearance, with a high tree canopy, which many people find attractive. The common quail plantation look can be acquired through controlled burns. 
• Burned forests are more open and easier to walk through than unburned forests, improving access for hunters, birdwatchers, hikers, and others.