Fire and Deer
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"Factors Related to Larger but Fewer Wildfires and Fewer Deer in California: A Google Sites Knowledge Base. (2019) Issues in Information Systems. G. K. Webb
... Data analysis includes statistical tests of some common factors proposed in the public discussion related to climate change and forest density. Findings include that data starting from 1932 show annual acres burned in Cal Fire jurisdictions have been about constant. Data from 1987 show that total acres burned increased and were correlated to increased maximum temperature, and that that wildfires have become larger but less frequent. A decline in logging activity was strongly correlated to increased fire size and reduced deer populations. Drought was also correlated to increased fire size and fewer deer...
California's forests are choking June 21, 2018 Sacramento News & Review
...there is little debate about what’s causing the problem: The forests are too dense. The phenomenon is rooted in 150 years of post-European settlement activity. Previously, Native Americans used fire to convert shrubland to promote grassland for deer-hunting, protect themselves from predators and as a tool of intertribal warfare, and lightning started fires throughout the West for many thousands of years, clearing away dense underbrush and unhealthy trees and naturally regenerating the landscape...
California Fights Fire With Fire August 29, 2024 The American Prospect
... For thousands of years, indigenous people have set “cultural burns” to improve habitats for creatures like deer, turkey, and quail; eliminate pests, diseases, and invasive species; and help germinate fire-dependent plants like the iconic giant sequoia ... stigmas against fire “really problematic, especially in a place like California, where a lot of our ecosystems evolved with fire every five years.” She adds, “We need to be burning on some level of frequency ...
Burn to Save, or Save to Burn? Management May Be Key to Conservation of an Iconic Old-Growth Stand in California, USA - Fire, 2025
... Our results demonstrate that restorative forest management can greatly improve an MOG forest’s resistance to catastrophic fire. Thinning to the natural range of variation for density, basal area, and fuel loads, followed by a prescribed burn, was most effective at reducing large-tree mortality, maintaining basal area, and retaining live tree carbon post-wildfire, while reducing secondary impacts. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the value of proactive management in protecting old-growth forests in seasonally dry regions from severe fire events, while also enhancing their ecological integrity and biodiversity...
Large Herbivores Can Help Prevent Massive Wildfires September 9, 2023 Scientific American
... In 2022, California’s black-tail deer and mule deer populations was estimated to be around 475,000 according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, a sharp reduction from about two million back in 1960. This decline has contributed significantly to an accumulation of flammable vegetation since one deer can consume about seven pounds of vegetation per day, about 2,555 pounds annually...
Native American use of fire dogedaos.com
... The most significant type of environmental change brought about by Precolumbian human activity was the modification of vegetation. … Vegetation was primarily altered by the clearing of forest and by intentional burning... The burning of large areas was useful to divert big game (deer, elk, bison) into small unburned areas for easier hunting and provide open prairies/meadows (rather than brush and tall trees) where animals (including ducks and geese) like to dine on fresh, new grass sprouts ...
After California's 3rd-largest wildfire, deer returned home while trees were 'still smoldering' October 28, 2021 Phys.org
... researchers ... were able to track a group of black-tailed deer during and after California's third-largest wildfire ... Of the 18 deer studied, all survived... all of the deer returned soon after the fire. Deer from burned areas had to work harder and travel farther to find green vegetation, and researchers noticed a decline in body condition in some of these animals ... [the research was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution]
Wildfires reshape forests and change the behavior of animals that live there November 12, 2022 Washington, Salon
... Habitat degradation and other factors have caused populations of mule deer, a common species in many parts of the West, to decline across much of their native range... We found that mule deer use these burns in summer but avoid them in winter. Deer also adjusted their movement to reduce predation risk in these burned landscapes, which varies depending on whether cougars or wolves are the threat...
Fire Ecology and Management of Southwestern Forests Ecology and Management …, 2021
... Prior to Euro-American settlement, Native Americans used fire and co-existed with the landscape’s fire regime, but colonists brought different perspectives and land uses, excluding fire from most southwestern forests for well over a century. Severe fires are becoming larger, threatening people and structures as well as ecosystem sustainability...
Climate change stokes fiery future for California September 17, 2018 Santa Rosa Press Democrat
... fire shaped the drought-prone landscape for thousands of years, as Native Americans used it to maintain meadows and forests that provided deer, elk and acorns for food as well as grasses for basketry...
Managed Grazing Helps California Forests, Experts Say August 3, 2016 Sierra Sun Times
... forests used to be managed more efficiently and effectively 50 years ago, but regulatory constraints or threats of litigation have changed how management decisions are made ... ...At the same time, the number of grazing herds of deer, antelope and other wild animals also has diminished in forestlands, allowing overgrowth of vegetation and increasing fire risk ...
Evaluating the Influence of Federal Prescribed Fire Regimes in East Texas on White-tailed Deer Body Condition and Antler Size, 2020, Proceedings of the 20th Biennial Southern Silvicultural Research Conference, TP Wall, BP Oswald, KR Kidd, RL Darville [PDF]
... Deer antler beam and inside mean spread were significantly greater at 2 years post-burn than at less than 1 year post-burn. These results indicate that frequent prescribed fire is physiologically beneficial to white-tailed deer...
Improving Coastal Plain Hardwoods for Deer and Turkeys with Canopy Reduction and Fire
MA Turner, WD Gulsby, CA Harper, SS Ditchkoff - Wildlife Society Bulletin, 2020
... Prescribed fire and canopy reduction are accepted forest management practices
used to increase forage and cover for white‐tailed deer ... We recommend FSI [herbicide to kill trees with low value to deer and turkeys and retained oaks] and low‐intensity prescribed fire in Coastal Plain hardwoods to improve brooding cover for turkeys and understory forage for deer while retaining acorn production...
Ungulate browsing on introduced pines differs between plant communities: Implications for invasion process and management LB Zamora‐Nasca, MA Relva, MA Núñez - Austral Ecology, 2019
... Summer forage quality peaked in recently burned forests and decreased as time since burn increased. Summer forage abundance peaked in dry forests burned 6–15 years prior and mesic forests burned within 5 years. Forests recently burned by wildfire had higher summer forage quality and herbaceous abundance than those recently burned by prescribed fire...
Forest restoration, wildfire, and habitat selection by female mule deer New Mexico, TM Roerick, JW Cain III, JV Gedir - Forest Ecology and Management, 2019
... Historical forest management actions contributed to degraded habitat for mule deer. ... Decades of fire suppression, logging, and overgrazing have led to increased densities of small diameter trees which have been associated with decreases in biodiversity, reduced habitat quality for wildlife species, degraded foraging conditions for ungulates, and more frequent and severe wildfires...
Fire and Forest Management in Montana Forests of the Northwestern States and California, USA I Allen, S Chin, J Zhang - Fire, 2019
... With expected climate induced changes in fire frequency, it is suggested that fuel treatments be implemented in dry forests to ensure an understory fire regime is restored in these forest systems. With respect to wet forests in this region, it is suggested that there is still a place for stand-replacing fire regimes...
As It Was: Ashland, Ore., Forest Plan Reduces Wildfire Danger August 5, 2019 Oregon, ijpr.or
... Until settlers began arriving in the 1850s, the indigenous people used low-intensity fire to herd [and feed] deer, reducing fuel content in the watershed. As settlers pushed aside the Indians, the forest thickened, becoming susceptible to wildfires...
NMSU researchers work to restore fire-damaged forests February 17, 2019 New Mexico, Las Cruces Sun-News
... elk are really responding to the wildfire burned areas, because they like the new grass growth ... The mule deer avoid the wildfire areas completely after the fire ... will visit prescribed burn areas, particularly those burned within the previous two years. Deer select thinned areas, but only those thinned more than five years previous, once the shrubs have grown back...
Native Peoples' Relationship to the California Chaparral MK Anderson, JE Keeley - Valuing Chaparral, 2018
... many tribes of California ... natural fires with deliberate burning of chaparral to maximize its ability to produce useful products... Areas were burned in ways designed to create a mosaic of open grassland and recently burned, young and mature stands of chaparral with different combinations of species and densities. This management conferred on chaparral plant communities a degree of spatial, structural, successional, and biotic diversity that exceeded what would have been the case in the absence of human intervention... [the article contains many references to research about how this helped improve the deer herd] ...
Fire and agroforestry revive California indigenous groups' traditions October 11, 2018 Mongabay.com
... For centuries, the Karuk tribe has nudged this interlocking ecosystem toward producing these beneficial plants through practices known as agroforestry... we cultivate them with fire ... Fire clears oak groves of encroaching conifers and kills the weevils that ruin acorns. It renews the meadow grasses for grazing deer and elk...
Wildfires cause havoc for humans, but not mule deer July 29, 2018 British Columbia, Surrey Now-Leader
... Animals like deer, moose, and big horn sheep like young regrowth... The wildfires are also not large enough to have a severe impact ... “Fire, when it’s away from people and everyone is safe, belongs on this landscape ... Nutrients from burned plants creates the perfect habitat for regrowth, said David Scott, with the department of earth and environmental sciences at UBCO...
From Beorge E Gruell: Deer and Reforestation in the Pacific Northwest. Proceedings of the 7th Vertebrate Pest Conference (1976)
... Deer and forestry researchers and managers agree that black-tailed deer respond predictably to changes in forest cover (Lawrence 1969, Resler 1972). Numbers of animals tend to increase as closed-canopy forests are burned or logged and to decline as forests regenerate and mature. Such increases in numbers of deer are deemed favorable and in the public interest...
Wildfires produce elk food as nutritious as alfalfa, Montana study shows September 22, 2018 Casper Star-Tribune Online
... Barker’s study found that “ … Recently burned (1-6 year prior) dry forests at higher elevations provided forage quality approximately equivalent to that of irrigated agriculture.” ... “If summer nutrition is bad, they won’t have a calf,” Toman said. “It takes summer nutrition to drive that elk herd.” ...
Experts say West Texas wildfires bring some ecological benefits March 7, 2017 LubbockOnline.com
... larger mammals, such as mule deer, white tail deer and cattle, are attracted to areas affected by fires because they prefer to graze on the newer shoots of grasses ...fire clears off all that old, dead grass and increases the availability of sunlight and nutrients for new emerging shoots ...
Use Prescribed Fire as a Tool or Wildfire Will Rule, Expert Says December 14, 2015 Washington, Emergency Management
... Prescribed burning alone in shrub-steppe grasslands can reduce the intensity of wildfires and reduce their impact on habitat for critters including prairie grouse and deer ... Many timbered areas can be better protected – and wildlife habitat can be enhanced – by using loggers to thin timber and then by following the work with a prescribed burn ...
Feral horses influence both spatial and temporal patterns of water use by native ungulates in a semi‐arid environment LK Hall, RT Larsen, RN Knight, BR McMillan - Ecosphere, 2018
... Our objective was to determine whether pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) spatially or temporally altered their use of water to minimize interactions with horses. From 2010 to 2014, we used remote cameras to monitor ungulates at 32 water sources in the Great Basin Desert... both native ungulates used water sources less often where horse activity at water sources was high, indicating that spatial avoidance occurred. Further, we observed significant differences in peak arrival time for pronghorn, but not mule deer at horse-occupied sites versus sites where horses were absent or uncommon, indicating that temporal avoidance may be more important for pronghorn than mule deer... feral horses further constrain access to an already limited resource for native species in a semi-arid environment...
Massive juniper removal project could help Idaho sage grouse February 15, 2018 Idaho, Jackson Hole News&Guide
... warmer winters combined with fewer wildfires at higher elevations of sagebrush steppe have allowed junipers to expand into areas once filled with sagebrush and native grasses... the juniper-removal plan, ... “It will benefit big game, including mule deer and elk, bighorn sheep and antelope.” ...
Setting fire to New Jersey's forests — on purpose May 12, 2018 NorthJersey.com
... Low intensity fires can help restore some nutrients to the soil. It also clears lanes for deer, and helps suppress the spread of ticks, which can carry Lyme disease ...
Grazing by free-ranging red deer: effective management for semi-natural grassland conservation? F Riesch, B Tonn, M Meissner, J Isselstein - … of the 27th General Meeting of the …, 2018
... How to maintain open habitats is a critical question for nature conservation, especially if the area of concern is large and difficult to access. Central to preventing natural succession and maintaining protected grasslands is the removal of biomass, which can be successfully achieved by livestock grazing... Red deer grazing could reach biomass removal rates comparable to those in extensive livestock grazing systems...
Monterey Bay Area’s Native Amah Mutsun Seek Return to Lost Way of Life July 21, 2016 California, 90.3 Kazu
... The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band wants to restore ecosystems that once flourished here: from the deer herds that roamed the land to the medicinal plants that sustained the tribe...They may use controlled burning to maintain grasslands ...
Coexisting with chaparral J Downing - California Agriculture, 2017
... Prescribed fire tends to reduce some native shrubs, such as buckbrush (Ceanothus cuneatus), which is an important deer browse... 10 years after treatment, the native shrub buckbrush, an important deer browse, had almost disappeared from all fire plots, while it was more prevalent in the masticated plots than in the untreated plots ...
Burro Fire could be good for Mount Lemmon wildlife July 19, 2017 Arizona, Tucson News Now
... the deer population on Mount Lemmon will increase into the thousands ... deer foraging in the burned area where new shoots are sprouting...
Effects of wildlife after a wildfire April 25, 2016 Kansas, Hutchinson News
... Anderson Creek fire ... southern Kansas ... a few deer on the newly emerging grasses... hadn’t found any dead deer, but had found some porcupines and squirrels. ...
At least 26 Indiana counties had prairie lands April 12, 2016 Indiana, Washington Times Herald
... The Native Americans knew that open areas near the edge of the forests were of great value in providing sites where the deer, bison, elk and other animals that provided them with much of their food lived... our Native Americans ... soon found out that using fire could help keep these open areas free of most trees and shrubs and allow the plants the animals utilized for food to propagate and flourish...
Fire and Grazing in the Prairie National Park Service
... Two factors of prairie maintenance are fire and grazing. Grazing animals play an important role in maintaining the ecosystem by stimulating plants to grow. This triggers biological activity and nutrient exchanges. Bison, deer, and cattle compact the soil with their hooves and open new areas for seeds and the generation of plants to take root...
West Virginia Legislation Would Support Healthy Forests and Expanded Recreational Opportunities in West Virginia State Parks February 5, 2018
... “Select state park properties have overmatured to the point that we are in even greater danger due to the accumulation of fuel on the forest floor,” ...
Concerns over wild horses along Highway 50 February 10, 2018 Nevada
Nevada Appeal
... The numbers of free-roaming horses on the range are small in comparison to livestock across the American West. Dr. Perryman of the University of Nevada, Reno ... Over the years NDA has claimed horses are starving, blaming shortages as the reason horses come into the valleys at certain times of the year. The truth is the animals have seasonal rounds...
Navajo Nation Cancels Horse Hunt March 5, 2018 TheHorse.com
... In 2016 an independent survey revealed that 48,000 unbranded, so-called feral horses resided on the Nation’s 18-million-acre reservation located in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah... , the Navajo Nation DNR has developed a multipronged horse management plan using trapping, castration, birth control, and adoptions ...
Setting Fires and Restoring an American Landscape April 23, 2018 Illinois, New York Times
... For thousands of years, indigenous Americans ignited the landscape. Fire, they knew, brought bison and deer to hunt, and berries and tubers to harvest. European colonizers took these strategies and practiced them for centuries — but things changed in the early 20th century... The United States Forest Service started the Smokey Bear campaign, which portrayed all fire as destructive...
Controlled Vegetation Burn In Monterey County Tuesday November 7, 2017 California, Patch.com
... The project is meant to reduce flammable vegetation near the communities of Soledad and Gonzales, as well as increase available water and deer forage ...
State Department of Fish and Wildlife to start controlled burns this fall September 19, 2017 Washington, Yakima Herald-Republic
... We need to reduce fuel loads in some of these areas to lower the risk of catastrophic uncontrolled wildfire ... Deer love that new growth and will thrive on it for years to come...
Prescribed fires as a tool August 21, 2017 Wyoming, Kemmerer Gazette
...“ ... a key tool for plans to improve mule deer fawning habitat ...Wildfire and prescribed burns provide natural treatment of timber stands that especially benefit deer and elk by stimulating new growth of aspen and increased tall forb production...
To Control Forest Fires, Western States Light More of Their Own May 16, 2019 Colorado, Governing
... “Deer and elk will love this,” said the U.S. Forest Service “burn boss,” gesturing to a cluster of blackened trees that eventually will fall and create more space for forage plants...
Florida Forest Service shares importance of prescribed fires January 28, 2016 WJHG-TV
... The wildlife habitat goes up 50 percent after a burn... "The new plants take that up real quick. Deer, and other forms of wildlife, really like that regrowth...
Box-R going back to nature December 2, 2015 Florida, The Times
... FranklinCounty ... thousands of acres of pine plantation to a more natural condition.... According to FWC, Box-R is managed for a diversity of wildlife species through timber management (thinning and reforestation), prescribed burning and hydrological restoration. Wildlife openings are maintained and enhanced to attract deer, turkey, rabbits ...
Goats help clear brush to reduce wildfire fuel June 14, 2018 California, WHSV-TV
... we have about 180 boar, spanish and nubian goats that are out here, that are assisting with brush clearance." The goats are part of the city's plan to clear thick, dangerous fuels that could ignite...
Could forest fire control be hurting B.C. deer? Study aims to find out May 24, 2018, British Columbia, CBC.ca
... Conservationists and researchers say wildfire control efforts in B.C. may be causing mule deer numbers to decline... mule deer are very choosy eaters, and fire creates open canopies, so it opens up the forest and then you get the flush of green growth in the understory ... We think that is the single most important factor affecting mule deer abundance in B.C
Burn projects aim to restore dwindling aspen trees in Gallatin Valley May 17, 2018 Montana, NBC Montana
... Montana has lost 64 percent of its aspen trees over the last century ... it’s common for deer, elk and moose to graze on aspen, and because of their high moisture content they can act as natural barriers during wildfires...
Prescribed fires useful to prevent future tragedy February 2, 2018 Alabama, Montgomery Advertiser
... While there has been some increase in the use of fire in woodlands in the last decade (more than 1 million acres in Alabama in 2009), there are many more millions of acres that need burning and are not getting it...
A history lesson on early hunters February 5, 2018 Ohio, Bucyrus Telegraph Forum
... Ohio was mostly heavy forest, but there were prairies here and there with rich grasses and reeds that deer, buffalo, and elk loved, and the Indians burned them frequently to remove growing seedlings and saplings of brush and trees and fertilize new growth of prairie grasses...
South Carolina DNR Official Sees Smokey Bear as Threat to Prescribed Burns March 23, 2016 Firefighter Nation
... The use of prescribed fire as a land management tool has deep and ancient roots in South Carolina's heritage... Prescribed fires help restore and maintain vital habitat for wildlife, including bobwhite quail and other grassland birds, wild turkeys, white-tailed deer, gopher tortoises and red-cockaded woodpeckers...
Prescribed burn to benefit wildlife habitat at Perryville Battlefield March 23, 2016 Kentucky, Central Kentucky News
... Burning fields may not sound like a good thing, but it makes for a high-quality habitat, stimulating the growth of valuable grasses and wildflowers, Brunjes said, and it benefits birds and game, including quail, rabbits, deer, turkeys, bluebirds, grasshopper sparrows, meadowlarks and more..
Thinning project on wildlife management area gets go-ahead June 20, 2018 Montdana, Ravalli Republic
... deer and elk like the forest’s edge... Focused on improving forage production on the winter range, improving aspen stands and reducing the risk of fire and bug infestations, the agency thinned about 370 acres... I would like to see fire reintroduced to keep the underbrush from becoming overgrown...
Spring burning May 27, 2018 Minnesota, Herald Review
... reason many settlers burned around their buildings was the threat of larger uncontrolled forest and ground fires... It kept the tick population down since it destroyed the tick’s natural habitat; dead grass ... The risk of ground fires getting out of control is the primary concern of the DNR. So all the dead grass remains ...
The impact of wildfires on wildlife July 3, 2018 California, Record Bee
... a week after the fire, and they were surprised to find very few bones or carcasses of deer ... Much of the county is woodland or covered in brush. As the brush and trees age, they provide very little forage for animals. Streams that have been dry for years will have water flowing after a fire because the fire burned up the excess brush that sucked up the water...
Thinning Forests Reduces Wildfire and Supports Deer Populations
Habitat improvements crucial to health of wildlife September 19, 2021 New Mexico, The Santa Fe New Mexican
... a 1,000-acre tree-thinning project to benefit deer and elk... “Habitat improvements have done, and continue to do, great things for the deer and elk in GMU 2,” ...
Missouri Timber Management Boosts Wildlife and Preferred Trees January 20, 2012, Kansas City infoZine
...Down came honey locust and small shingle oak trees ... Still standing ... white oaks and the healthiest black oaks. But by thinning timber he’s made room for the most desirable trees to grow... “Instead of just a tree canopy overhead and leaf litter on the ground, you’ll get plants that grow after they get enough light,” said Audrey Beres, a resource forester for the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). “It’s not just food for deer. You get plants that help songbirds and gamebirds. There are a lot of wildlife benefits from thinning and opening the woods.” ...
Reintroducing fire into the forest May 17, 2012 Oregon, La Grande Observer
As our understanding of science exponentially expands, natural resource managers are experimenting with way to bring forests back into balance by replicating natural history ... Fire Management Officer Nathan Goodrich of the North Zone of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest said ... burning brush like scholar’s willow, bitter cherry and bitterbrush improve browse for deer and elk. Burning in the spring will remove the dead, woody parts of the shrubs while allowing new growth to come back next year...
San Juan Islands, Kwiaht studies islands' deer populations October 21, 2017 Washington, Islands' Sounder
... Early European explorers saw herds of deer swimming between the islands pursued by Coast Salish hunters in canoes; and observed Coast Salish villagers burning underbrush to improve deer habitat ..,
