Interpreting Smoke Signals: Fire Ecology and Land Management for Four Federally Listed Birds

Abstract

Recovery of listed species requires that land managers and research biologists work together to address the factors affecting population stability and growth. In Florida, an essential factor affecting rare species habitat quality and restoration is fire management. Fire plays an essential role in restoring and maintaining almost every upland ecosystem in Florida, but fires also have negative effects (e.g., mortality and displacement) that play out today within an altered landscape where rare species are often limited to small, fragmented areas and negative effects may be accentuated. Fire effects also are complex, not well studied experimentally, and likely to change as urbanization and global temperatures increase over coming decades. These conditions can create missteps in both fire research and fire management without regular communication between scientists and practitioners. We assessed the fire-related research associated with four federally listed birds in Florida: Cape Sable seaside sparrow (Ammodramus maritimus mirabilis), Florida grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum floridanus), Florida scrub-jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens), and red-cockaded woodpecker (Dryobates borealis). Fire research has not addressed the needs of some of these species for starkly different reasons. Land managers, in turn, have not successfully applied the recommendations of fire research in other instances. Our results point to fire frequency as an important focus for practitioners managing habitat for rare species in Florida. Our review also suggests that successful integration of research and management will be best served when (1) ecological burning practices are used, (2) local fire management goals are prioritized annually, (3) instructional products are developed for managers, (4) land manager tenure is promoted, (5) stakeholders meet regularly, and (6) creative solutions are devised to overcome staff and equipment shortages.

Endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow ecology: actions towards recovery through landscape-scale ecosystem restoration

“…Four decades of research on this imperiled species indicate that habitat conditions with hydroperiods ranging from 90 to 210 d, at least 90 consecutive dry days during the breeding season, and fires during non-breeding every 5−10 yr provide conditions that may benefit CSSS recovery. In the Everglades headwaters to the north, the Florida grasshopper sparrow population declined by 89% over 20 yr to fewer than 35 breeding pairs across its range (Cox et al 2020), but concerted conservation efforts led to reproduction of the subspecies. As for the Florida grasshopper sparrow, conservation, restoration, and habitat management actions may also provide steps toward recovery for the CSSS.…”

Causal Bayesian networks in assessments of wildfire risks: Opportunities for ecological risk assessment and management

“…Both the RCW and CSO exist in forests historically adapted to frequent, low‐ to moderate‐intensity fire regimes, but forest conditions have been impacted by a legacy of logging and fire exclusion, among other factors (Stephens et al, 2019). In the case of the RCW, application of prescribed burning has helped to restore longleaf pine habitat, but reintroduction of fire after extended periods of fire exclusion presents a risk of excessive overstory mortality due in part to smoldering combustion of accumulated duff on the forest floor (Cox et al, 2020; Hiers et al, 2020; O'Brien et al, 2010; Varner et al, 2007; Williams et al, 2006). In the case of the CSO, application of prescribed burning has been limited, surface and ladder fuel loads are high, and habitat characterized by tall tree cover is at risk of large, stand‐replacing wildfires (G. M. Jones et al, 2016, 2020; A. Kramer et al, 2021; North et al, 2017; Schofield et al, 2020).…”