 |
Using
Birds to Monitor the Ecological Effects of Fire Suppression, Fuels
Treatment, and Wildfire |
Background:
Fire is an ecologically important and unique disturbance agent that
occurs in most ecosystems. Because historical fire regimes create predictable
changes in landscape composition, these regimes have influenced the
evolution of life history strategies of many organisms and landscape-scale
patterns of biogeography and diversity. With fire suppression management
programs carried out in the last century, natural fire patterns have
been altered. These changes are believed to have changed habitat composition
and led to fuel accumulations associated with unnaturally severe fires.
Continuing to suppress fires without corrective measures to reduce fuel
loads may lead to larger and more intense fires. This recognition has
led to a shift toward fire prevention strategies that aim to reduce
fire hazards by using prescribed burning and mechanical fuels reductions.
The challenge of contemporary fire management lies in understanding
the ecological role of fire in natural systems and how this process
can be restored with fire management that is compatible with social,
economic, and aesthetic values.
With funding from the Joint
Fire Sciences Program , The Klamath Bird Observatory, USDA Forest
Service, USDI Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and
others are investigating the ecological effects of wildfire and fire
management by implementing a comprehensive study of bird distribution
as it relates to fire suppression, fuels treatment, and wildfire rehabilitation
in the Klamath Ecoregion of southern Oregon and northern California.
Click
here to download a flyer about our work assesing bird response to fire
and fuels treatments.
