Controlled Burns Used to Restore Record Acreage of Florida Natural Areas

Trained fire crews conduct prescribed fires to improve wildlife habitat, reduce the intensity of catastrophic wildfires.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL — September 16, 2008 — Good weather conditions and a strong history of interagency cooperation allowed fire crews statewide to conduct controlled burns over a record number of acres across Florida natural areas, which helped a rare bird species expand its habitat and also helped slow the spread of a wildfire in Brevard County.

During fiscal year 2008 (July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008), members of The Nature Conservancy’s Florida Fire Team helped restore nearly 80,000 acres of wildlife habitat by conducting or assisting with controlled burns on 9,361 acres of Nature Conservancy preserves and on 70,695 acres of public conservation lands, which directly benefit fire dependent ecosystems and help reduce the intensity of wildfire. State and federal conservation agencies in Florida also exceeded previous years’ records for acres burned including the Florida Park Service, which completed more than 80,000 acres of controlled burns, and Eglin Air Force base, which conducted burns on more than 100,000 acres. Florida Division of Forestry conducted prescribed burns across nearly 160,000 acres of state forestland—a 60 percent increase from the previous year.

“The record number of acres burned for conservation across Florida is a testament to the strong cooperation among nonprofits and local, state and federal agencies,” said Zachary Prusak, the Conservancy’s Florida fire manager. “Careful long-term planning, good teamwork and the hard work put forth by fire crews from all across the state during the past several years allowed conservation agencies to burn more acreage safely this year when favorable weather conditions were present.”

John Saddler, prescribed fire manager for the Florida Division of Forestry, said, “Helping others get prescribed burning done helps benefit our agency, too.” While the forestry division focuses its resources primarily toward suppressing wildfires, he added, “The way we look at it is any acreage that gets burned under prescribed burning is good because it is less area we need to worry about intense wildfires.”

“The cooperation with all our partners is a big key for success,” said Rosi Mulholland, Florida State Park’s fire manager. “All of us are in the same situation. We don’t have enough staff and equipment. Partnering is one of those tools that help our most successful burn managers.”

Historically, as lightning-ignited fires swept across much of Florida, plants and animals came to depend on periodic fires for their reproduction, growth and survival. Due to the increased amount of development around natural areas, any naturally occurring fire is usually put out.

In addition to keeping wildlife habitat healthy, prescribed fires can also lower the risk that wildfires pose to residential communities by reducing natural fuels, like shrubs, grasses and fallen leaves, which accumulate without regular fire. An unplanned fire that begins in an area with heavy fuels like these can become a dangerous wildfire.

The benefits of prescribed fire for fuel reduction were evident in Brevard County earlier this year.

“We had a significant demonstration of how valuable prescribed fire is for reducing the impacts of wildfires,” Prusak said. “Local firefighters attributed fuel reduction by prescribed burns at Jordan Scrub Sanctuary in Malabar and the nearby Micco Scrub Sanctuary as a key factor in helping slow the spread and even stop portions of the Mother’s Day wildfire.”

Repeated controlled burns also had a noticeable effect on expanding habitat for one of the state’s fire-dependent species—the Florida grasshopper sparrow. Florida Park Service’s Mulholland said that repeated controlled burning of a section of Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park allowed the rare bird to return to an area where it had been extirpated.

With hurricane season in full swing, fire managers will be watching for direct wind impacts, which can add new fuels to the ground for the coming fire season, which starts in late winter/early spring. Prusak also said that the unusually large amounts of rainfall during hurricane season could lead to faster re-growth of plants and foliage in fire-dependent ecosystems.

“That may accelerate the need for more frequent burns, meaning instead of four years to repeat a burn we may need to return in three years at a particular site,” he explained.

Roughly 9.7 million acres is in conservation management across Florida and more than half require fire every few years. In 1999, the Conservancy developed a fire “strike team” concept supported by a suite of funding sources that assists with burns on federal, state, county and private lands. During 2009, the Conservancy plans to expand its fire management assistance strategy by establishing a new fire and invasive eradication team in northeast Florida to assist conservation agencies. Learn more about prescribed fire.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. With funding from the voter approved Florida Forever program and our generous donors the Conservancy has helped protect more than 1.2 million acres in Florida since 1961.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have protected nearly 120 million acres worldwide. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.