Why are we cutting trees? I’d rather be hugging them.

People may picture pre-settlement Maryland as an unbroken swath of forest, but many of our state’s rarest natural communities are actually barrens, grasslands or natural clearings. Ecologists believe that serpentine barrens, shale barrens and Delmarva bays were kept open by natural wildfires. Many of the rare plants in these areas need open sunny habitat and are adapted to fire. Fires still occur, of course--but because natural areas are fragmented by roads and development and because modern man quickly extinguishes wildfires, they seldom reach our special protected areas. This means that our barren preserves burn far less frequently than is needed to maintain open habitat for rare plants.

Prescribed burns—controlled fires set intentionally to manage habitat—mimic the burn frequency that has been lost. Burn preparation requires that we clear firelines around the treatment area, so that the fires stay where they belong. In some cases, it’s also necessary to clear common species of trees within the treatment area to allow ground litter to dry out. There are also preserves where we believe that common species of trees are becoming over-competitive because of changes in local hydrology, so we are experimenting with clearing even without a plan to burn in the future.