Fire as a Management Component

Abstract

Increasing attention to the roles of control fires in land management, in arenas as different as grassy savannas and near climax forests, and encompassing natural and anthropogenic landscapes in many parts of the world, relies progressively on the ecological understanding of the consequences, but also on how the use of fire may participate in wider conservation management. Increasing interest in use of prescribed fires as a management tool is associated closely with both (1) the need to understand the ecology of the targeted ecosystems or species and (2) that features of the individual fire and wider fire regime may strongly influence the outcomes, together with features of site topology, weather and other variable factors. The balance between outcomes as ‘threat’ or ‘benefit’ is often very fine, and commonly also difficult to predict, other than in well-tried scenarios associated mainly with anthropogenic environments. Short term benefit may lead to later problems, some of them not necessarily anticipated – burning can lead to vigorous weed growth, for example, with floristic changes sometimes leading to increased flammability of the vegetation and greater abundance of undesirable alien species. Heathland fires in southern England resulted in large inputs of potash to the soil, fostering growth of the invasive bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum), and reducing quality of early successional areas as habitat for the vulnerable heath fritillary butterfly, Mellicta athalia (Brook et al. 2007). Whilst low density bracken benefits this butterfly by providing shelter for the low-growing larval food plants, excessive bracken prevents access to these, through overshading. Management techniques to maintain low bracken density are needed, with cattle grazing and some herbicide use employed.