Prescribed burns are a type of management tool used by natural resource managers to maintain the health of an ecosystem and to return it to a more natural state.
According to Paul Arena, associate professor from the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, “Most people think fire is pretty bad, and for many years we’ve had a fire suppression strategy around the country, mainly because of the threat to our homes and other developments. But many ecosystems really rely on fire to do a couple things. Number one, to recycle nutrients. A lot of times when the shrub layer burns down, a lot of the nutrients that are locked in that biomass get added to the soil and that adds nutrients to the system. Also, there are plenty of species in these habitats that are called pyrogenic, meaning that they require fire for their own survival and reproduction,” Arena added.
One such pyrogenic species in this region is sand pine. The sand pine is a key feature of upland shrub habitats. Like other pyrogenic pine species, the sand pine’s pine cones are covered in a waxy resin that holds their seeds. That waxy resin melts when exposed to heat and releases the seeds into the nutrient dense soil where they lie dormant until the fire passes.
Slash pines are another species of pine tree that has adapted to survive in fire systems. According to J. Matthew Hoch, an associate professor from the Halmos College of Arts and Sciences, “They grow with a tall crown so that they can survive a small fire. They have roots that are temperature resistant, and their trunks are from temperature resistant.”
Like the sand pine, the slash pine’s pine cones are coated in a waxy resin that allows them to survive through fires.
Prescribed burns are one of the preferred methods for ecosystem management, as opposed to chemical or mechanical methods. As many native organisms have adapted to thrive in fire systems, they are able to survive the fire, while nonnative and invasive species are unable to survive after a fire. A prescribed burn is more controlled than herbicides, as herbicides will exterminate most organisms in a given area.
“Chemical is usually too difficult because you have all these other native plants too, so very few herbicides are very specific to one species. Either you have to go in by hand and rip them out, which can work short term, but usually you’re not pulling out the whole root system. Usually there’s plenty of their seeds on the ground. One of the most effective ways to get invasives out of an area, particularly one that’s adapted to intervals of fire is just to burn,” said Arena.
