Tag: Prescribed Fire
The content below has been tagged with the term “Prescribed Fire.”
Articles
Safe and sound burning
September 10, 2018 | 9 minute readHobe Sound, Florida — The well-to-do on Jupiter Island wanted the wildlife refuge burned and who was to say no? Not the federal biologists at the refuge across the Intracoastal Waterway. They were eager to accommodate their neighbors and restore the pine scrub habitat. But the stakes — and potential dangers — were high. A prescribed fire, by its nature, is carefully planned and executed to minimize mishaps. Yet, winds shift. Learn more...
Prime example of wildland urban interface on Sanibel Island, J.N. “Ding” Darling NWR. Photo by USFWS.
Fire as tool, and as friend
August 24, 2018 | 8 minute readFire -- prescribed and carefully managed -- can be a wildlands’ best friend. Wildlife officials tout its ecological benefits. Hunters, fishermen and birders laud its cattail-clearing, nutrient-adding attributes. Hydrologists praise unimpeded water flows. Photo by USFWS. Learn more...
Prescribed fire at Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
On the front lines
July 27, 2018 | 7 minute readAustin Griffin and Stephen McGuin are training to become wildland firefighters, an odd career choice given their unusual, at-times troubled backgrounds. Yet they’re perfect fits for a still-new training program crafted by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) to put a diverse and economically disadvantaged cadre of young men and women on the front firefighting lines. Learn more...
Stephen McGuin. Photo by Nicole Vidal, USFWS.
Marines and woodpeckers share the high ground
March 22, 2018 | 8 minute readJacksonville, North Carolina — Above the distant din of 50-caliber machine gun fire and Cobra attack helicopters, John Hammond hears the unmistakable sound of a red-cockaded woodpecker. He is approaching Combat Town, where U.S. Marines routinely assault a mock Iraqi village at Camp Lejeune. A sign for Combat Town at Camp Lejeune. Photo by Dan Chapman, USFWS. It is an incongruous spot for an endangered bird to make its home – the middle of a war zone where artillery boom and tanks prowl. Learn more...
Combat town at Camp Lejeune with a pine tree that is home to a red-cockaded woodpecker cluster. Photo by Dan Chapman, USFWS.
The woodpecker’s journey
November 20, 2017 | 9 minute readIt was getting dark. A light rain fell. Distant thunder rolled across the steamy, late-summer sky. The hunters were apprehensive. Their prey: endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers. Learn more...
A red-cockaded woodpecker has dinner outside its nesting cavity. Photo by USFWS.
South Carolina Coastal Program helps protect 11,000 acres in Berkeley County
September 26, 2017 | 3 minute readThe 11,000-acre, privately-owned Oakland Club, located in Berkeley County, South Carolina, is now a permanently protected site for several state species of concern and federally protected species. These species include bobwhite quail, American chaffseed, Eastern diamondback rattlesnakes, red-cockaded woodpeckers, swallow-tailed kites, Swainson’s warblers, and Southern hognose snakes. Once home to Revolutionary War hero General Francis Marion, the Oakland Club parallels the Santee River and lies between the Francis Marion National Forest and the Santee National Wildlife Refuge. Learn more...
Entry road to Revolutionary War hero General Francis Marion’s grave and Oakland Club. Photo by Jason Ayers, USFWS.
Partners join to conserve rare prairie barrens in Kentucky
August 31, 2017 | 3 minute readMonarch butterflies descend on the fields in droves, drawn by the abundance of milkweed, their favorite pollinator plant. Endangered northern long-eared and Indiana bats swoop through the sky. On the ground, biodiversity abounds, with rare plants like scurf pea and false gromwell. This little Eden - 160 acres now owned by the non-profit Southern Conservation Corps (SCC) – is a combination of forest and extremely rare prairie barrens habitat in Garrard County, a mostly rural county in central Kentucky. Learn more...
Two species of milkweed, common and butterfly, grow wild in the barrens. Milkweed is a favorite plant of monarch butterflies. Photo by J. Brent Harrel, USFWS.
Florida couple dedicates property to conservation
July 20, 2017 | 2 minute readBen and LouAnn Williams own approximately 3,400 acres of pinelands interspersed with bottomland hardwoods in Putnam County, Florida, between Jacksonville and Daytona Beach. Their property contributes to conservation on a regional scale because it is adjacent to publicly owned conservation areas, creating an important link in a chain of conservation lands from central Florida to the Georgia state line. Sandhill after prescribed burn. Photo by Ben Williams. In 2012, the Williams’ began establishing longleaf pine on their property and reintroduced prescribed burning. Learn more...
A gopher tortoise hiding in its shell. Photo by Ben Williams.
Biologists on bases: Fish and Wildlife joins the military
April 26, 2017 | 6 minute readMelanie Kaeser is embedded with the military at Tyndall Air Force Base. She patrols the pine forests and swampy wetlands as F-16s and F-22s maneuver overhead. Her mission: protect those in harm’s way - the gopher tortoises, the St. Andrews Beach mice and the Godfrey’s butterworts. Learn more...
Two F-22 Raptors from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., fly in formation. Photo by Senior Master Sgt. Thomas Meneguin, U.S. Air Force.
News
Base recognized for conservation work
May 30, 2018 | 4 minute readCamp Blanding, flush with federally endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers, donates juvenile birds to other wildlife areas across the South. Nearly two-thirds of the National Guard base in Northeast Florida is prime habitat for at-risk gopher tortoises too. More than 10,000 acres of pine and scrub is carefully burned each year to benefit under-threat flora and fauna as well as conservation-friendly longleaf pines. And the joint military base is a critical piece in the creation of a wildlife corridor that connects central Florida to southeast Georgia. Read the full story...
Red-cockaded woodpecker. Photo by Martjan Lammertink, U.S. Forest Service.