Prairie Drifter
Well-known member
In my region, these management practices are not only beneficial, but also necessary. Woodland expansion is a significant problem on the Kansas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska plains. Fire is the cheapest and most environmentally acceptable option to manage it. It costs but a few $ per acre compared to several hundred $ per acre for mechanical and chemical control has significant negatives for all the other broad-leafed plants in the habitat. In as much as the peak of the pheasant hatch is around June 10 here. Back dating the nesting and incubating puts the peak of the nest initiation about May 5. Therefore, all the fires conducted now and previously aren't affecting most of our breeding population significantly. Further, those that are laying will move over and re-nest.
Not managing habitat is one of the biggest threats to our upland bird populations in Kansas and surrounding states. The Quail Ecological Niche thread addresses how that affects our lower successional game species. Most of my burns are 50-80 acres, so displacement is easily managed by our mobile game bird species. This is hardly Armageddon class. This is management on 1/4 to 1/8 of a given grazing unit with the remainder available to nesting and territory establishment. One of the basic parameters of game management, or grass management for that matter, is maximizing solar utilization. Frequently here, in unmanaged or undermanaged habitats, the productivity of a certain tract may be reduced by the thatch and old growth left standing. Any solar radiation intercepted by that duff will result in 0 production in the environment. If you remember back to your food pyramid from basic biology in high school or grade school, the height of the pyramid is dependent upon how wide the base is. Since the base is dependent upon the amount of solar radiation converted into plant energy, it is important that plenty of solar energy is trapped in plants. By burning, we open up 100% of the leaf surfaces within the burn unit to solar reception.
Since we also know that our game birds need residual vegetation in some instances to construct nests, it is also important that some be available. This is a problem for prairie chickens in the Flint Hills where all the grass is burned for mile after mile. That is management for grazing income with no consideration made for the chickens. Management burns are a different animal. If one believes that nesting cover is all that is needed to make a population, you need to consider the difference between nesting cover and brood-rearing cover. They are not always the same animal. In may neck of the woods, when left alone, nesting cover quickly matures beyond being good brood-rearing cover. Too much grass or thatch quickly makes the stand a death-trap for broodlings and also interferes with their ability to catch the limited insect population that a habitat like that produces. Maintaining balance within a landscape between nesting, brood-rearing, escape, and feeding covers is what management is all about. Yes, you can look at a square foot within a burn and say "THAT" is not nesting habitat. However, it WILL be brood-rearing habitat by the time the brood hatches. They will utilize it then.
Not managing habitat is one of the biggest threats to our upland bird populations in Kansas and surrounding states. The Quail Ecological Niche thread addresses how that affects our lower successional game species. Most of my burns are 50-80 acres, so displacement is easily managed by our mobile game bird species. This is hardly Armageddon class. This is management on 1/4 to 1/8 of a given grazing unit with the remainder available to nesting and territory establishment. One of the basic parameters of game management, or grass management for that matter, is maximizing solar utilization. Frequently here, in unmanaged or undermanaged habitats, the productivity of a certain tract may be reduced by the thatch and old growth left standing. Any solar radiation intercepted by that duff will result in 0 production in the environment. If you remember back to your food pyramid from basic biology in high school or grade school, the height of the pyramid is dependent upon how wide the base is. Since the base is dependent upon the amount of solar radiation converted into plant energy, it is important that plenty of solar energy is trapped in plants. By burning, we open up 100% of the leaf surfaces within the burn unit to solar reception.
Since we also know that our game birds need residual vegetation in some instances to construct nests, it is also important that some be available. This is a problem for prairie chickens in the Flint Hills where all the grass is burned for mile after mile. That is management for grazing income with no consideration made for the chickens. Management burns are a different animal. If one believes that nesting cover is all that is needed to make a population, you need to consider the difference between nesting cover and brood-rearing cover. They are not always the same animal. In may neck of the woods, when left alone, nesting cover quickly matures beyond being good brood-rearing cover. Too much grass or thatch quickly makes the stand a death-trap for broodlings and also interferes with their ability to catch the limited insect population that a habitat like that produces. Maintaining balance within a landscape between nesting, brood-rearing, escape, and feeding covers is what management is all about. Yes, you can look at a square foot within a burn and say "THAT" is not nesting habitat. However, it WILL be brood-rearing habitat by the time the brood hatches. They will utilize it then.
Yeah, I often feel more like a national park than a wildlife area in that the human traffic really leaves it's mark. It would have been nice if they had moved the highway north 3 miles as was the cheapest option. That would have reduced our traffic significantly. For years, the bobwhite population has fluctuated in a 5 year cycle. I build a pop, folks find out about it, they kill most of them, and I'm in the cellar. Cycle starts over. This extended drought has elongated that cycle. That might say a while looking at how the neighbors have destroyed their rangeland. Quailhound, send me an app
