Whither Wildlife Without Fire?

Fire is a major ecosystem process that has been pervasive across the southern forest landscape on an evolutionary time scale (Watts and Hansen 1988). Wildlife evolved in response to frequent lightning-ignited bums that shaped the biota of the Southeast. Despite the dominant role that fire has played on an evolutionary scale, the use of prescribed fire as a forest wildlife management tool remains limited and must be expanded. In this paper, our objective is to use case histories from the scientific literature, along with previously unpublished data, to describe why use of prescribed fire is critical for the effective management of numerous wildlife species in southern forests. In our view, some of the major wildlife management “problems” (i.e., many endangered and/or declining species) in the southern U.S. are rooted in habitat loss resulting from a lack of adequate (either sufficiently frequent and/or widespread) applications of prescribed fire. Despite recent wildlife management successes and currently abundant populations of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and wild turkey (Meleagris gaflopavo), there are many southern forest vertebrates (i.e., northem bobwhite [Colinus virginianus], red-cockaded woodpecker [Picoides borealis], Bachman’s sparrow [Aimophifa aestivulis], fox squirrel [Sciurus niger] and gopher tortoise [Gopherus pofyphemus]) that are undergoing severe population declines as a result, in part, from fire being eliminated or greatly reduced across the southern forest landscape. To describe how fire impacts wildlife and what happens to wildlife when fire is eliminated from southern forest systems,