I think not, and I'll offer you some first hand proof. And maybe I'll even brag a little bit too.
This AM was the opening of spring turkey season in NE Texas where I live. Being a passionate participant in the activity, I was up early and headed for the Caddo WMA on the Caddo National Grasslands about an hour from my home. I had scouted the area a couple of weeks ago, and I knew the birds were where they usually are this time of year.
When I arrived at my chosen spot to hunt, I found that the Forest Service had chosen to light a prescribed burn of about two sections the day before opening day and right where I planned to hunt. As I arrived at the registration station there was another vehicle just ahead of me, but he didn't stop. Since the woods were still smoldering, he drove down the road and turned around and left.
I stopped and registered, then listened closely to the sounds of the dawn breaking before leaving my truck to hunt turkeys. I knew the turkeys would be active in spite of the fire; and, sure enough, before daylight I could hear turkeys gobbling in the distance. I made my way to where I wanted to set up initially, stumbling on to a coyote on the way, and hearing more gobbles as I slipped into position.
When I got my decoys out and daylight was right, I began calling softly to let them all know where I was. I had turkeys gobbling back from three directions, but all were quite a distance away. However, by 07:45 I had called a nice longbeard into range and bagged my bird with smoke rising from numerous stumps still on fire. When I tagged my bird he had black feet on the bottoms from walking in the soot. It was a great morning and life was good.
As I was coming out with my bird to go to the check station and record my harvest, I passed several FS employees heading to work tending to their fire. They asked if I had any luck, and I told them what had happened. Then I thanked them for firing the woods and scaring off all the other hunters. I had the woods all to myself this morning, and it was great.
They laughed, and then they asked if I had bagged the bird in the burn area. They seemed elated that I had bagged the bird in spite of the fire.
So don't let anyone tell you that prescribed fire will cause wildlife to leave the area. It just ain't so... why even the songbirds were having choir practice this morning.
2 comments:
As an addendum to this topic, recently I was asked to look at a piece of property that had been partially burned by a neighbor's attempt at a controlled burn. The neighbor had been negligent in that he had not created any sort of firebreak before trying to burn a hayfield. The owner was concerned that his habitat, that had been good before, was ruined. He wanted it cleaned up and restored.
After walking over the property only a couple of months after the burn, the only damage that was visible was to understory below 8-10 ft. There were some dead stems that he wanted mulched, but regrowth had already begun, and it was going strong.
Basically, the man had received habitat improvement for free, albeit not controlled and not prescribed. He was upset by it, and probably had reason to be, but his habitat had not been damaged, but improved.
After checking on the cost to mulch the dead stems for the man, I found it cost prohibitive to even bid on the job due to the insurance requirement to rent the mulcher needed to do the job.
But the point of this comment was to let people know that such an incident is not necessarily damaging to the property, at least as far as the habitat is concerned.
Last month I went scouting in the area where the above mentioned prescribed fire took place last spring. I was scouting for deer sign before the upcoming season plus I was curious to see how the habitat had rebounded following the fire. I was amazed at the early successional regrowth that was exploding all over the area that had been burned.
September is normally close to the end of the hot, dry summer here in TX, but this year has been abnormally wet since late July... at least in this part of the state. Evidently, the combination of fire and the unusually wet late summer this year has resulted in optimal conditions for habitat regrowth.
This should result in expansion of an already healthy wildlife population in this area. I'm excited to see what I can find to verify what I suspect. Population numbers should thrive and trophy quality should improve.
Post a Comment