ALC: Bulldozing for Birds?
Fire break installation at Boyd Pond Park.
If you were to visit Boyd Pond Park, a wonderful natural area located just south of Aiken, South Carolina, on October 9th of this year, you would have seen two bulldozers plowing through the forest, pushing over trees, and clearing a swath through natural habitats. Seeing this might cause panic, as it would be easy to conclude that natural habitat is being destroyed to the detriment of native wildlife, including birds. However, it’s not that simple.
Yes, bulldozing through the forest causes impacts to the native ecosystem. But not doing so could have caused the habitat being bulldozed to lose its integrity and, with it, the species that call it home. Why? The answer comes down to fire.
Longleaf pine tree where turpentine was once harvested.
Boyd Pond Park is a 206-acre park that includes a lake, observatory, disc golf course, mountain biking trails, and nearly 100 acres of forest. Aiken County manages the park, but 92 acres of the property is owned by Aiken Land Conservancy (ALC) and leased to Aiken County. The portion owned by ALC contains approximately 60 acres of mature, planted loblolly pine with remnant patches of very mature longleaf pine sprinkled throughout. These longleaf pines tell us that, historically, this habitat was open, longleaf-pine dominated sandhill that would have received fire every 2-3 years, on average. However, no fires have occurred within this popular park for at least thirty years.
Through the Burning for Birds Conservation Collaborative, ALC hopes to change that. Pre-burn bird surveys documented no fire-adapted birds of interest occupying the property, despite remnants of fire-adapted habitat persisting. Decades of fuel build-up in the form of branches, pine needles, and leaves left ALC staff wondering if a burn could even be completed in the park. Hurricane Helene didn’t help matters. Huge trees and limbs currently litter the forest floor and have added to an already extreme fuel load.
Boyd Pond Park ready for a prescribed burn!
The burn contractor ALC plans to use, however, is filled with professional staff. They assessed the site and stated that all they needed were professionally-installed fire breaks. Those bulldozers mentioned earlier were there thanks to the South Carolina Forestry Commission, professionals at installing fire breaks on both public and private lands. Their two staff expertly followed a path marked by flagging tape, avoiding mature trees, going up and down slopes, and pushing fallen trees into the burn unit. They installed the fire breaks with precision and skill and, in about six hours, they constructed nearly two miles of brand-new fire breaks.
In the next two months, a burn contractor, along with volunteers from the Aiken Prescribed Fire Cooperative, will participate in a burn on the property. The burn will be conducted on a cool winter day, ideally after some precipitation, to carefully reintroduce fire into this unit. Already, ALC has heard from park users, including a local mountain biking group, about how enthusiastic they are to see the property receive prescribed fire. In fact, the mountain biking group has already expressed interest in creating a new trail that follows the fire break, due to how well it was constructed. Who knew that bulldozing for birds could bring so many benefits?
To learn more about about Aiken Land Conservancy’s efforts to promote healthy habitat for birds as part of the Burning for Birds Conservation Collaborative, visit their project page by clicking on the button below.