Cornell Lab: Burning for Birds Collaborative Page
Apalachee Audubon volunteers, Tall Timbers staff, and private landowners documenting birds on a large hunting property in Southwest Georgia. Photo by Peter Kleinhenz.
Earlier this year, our partners at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology published a brand new page about the Burning for Birds Conservation Collaborative.
The page highlights the history and future goals of the collaborative, identifies key partners, and discusses the importance of applying prescribed fire to fire-defendant landscapes in the Southeast for the benefit of many species, including birds.
The website also features the incredible work of land trusts across the United States to promote habitat restoration for the benefit of birds.
Here is an excerpt from the new page:
“Private landowners in the Southeastern Coastal Plain, and the Native Americans that were here before them, have recognized the value of prescribed fire since they first arrived on this landscape. Their connection to the land allowed them to see that plants and animals responded positively to frequent fire in the longleaf pine-wiregrass savannas that once dominated the region. Native Americans set fires intentionally to open up land or influence game movements. Generations later, many private landowners did the same. As the years went by, landowners interested in hunting Northern Bobwhite quail were beginning to realize that quail were present in places that burned and not present in places that didn’t. Partially born out of this recognition is what, today, we call prescribed fire.
Many conservation and research organizations, particularly those active in Florida and Georgia, have promoted the use of prescribed fire ever since these findings. Members of the Burning for Birds Collaborative actively encourage prescribed fire on the lands that they both manage and work to conserve. But, occasionally, simply promoting fire is not enough.
Fire ecologists now know that the timing of burning greatly impacts ecosystems. Burns conducted in the “lightning” or “growing” season, between April and July, have been found to be most ecologically beneficial to areas that still retain native groundcover, such as wiregrass, toothache grass, and other plant species. Perhaps not surprisingly, burns that bring the most benefits to native plants also bring the most benefits to native birds.”
You can view the full page on the Cornell Lab website by clicking on the button below. Thank you to Cornell Lab and Land Trust Alliance for funding this important conservation project through the Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative!