Page 47 - 2023MayJun

While fire is a natural part of Oklahoma’s many ecosystems, Barnes
and his fellow biologists across the state still strategize how to best use JOHN MAXWELL/USFWS
fire to get the greatest good for wildlife populations and their habitats,
especially when sensitive habitats are involved.
At the McCurtain County Wilderness Area, mature pine trees used
by the red-cockaded woodpecker for nesting or roosting are among
the most sensitive of habitats. The birds form family groups and live
in cavities in a group, or cluster, of trees. When that cluster is within a
scheduled burn unit, Barnes takes extra precautions to protect the trees
from any inadvertent fire damage.
“These older shortleaf pines are really tough and withstand a fire
really well. But we still visit the cluster before burn day and rake around
the individual trees to reduce the fuel loads right next to the trees. And
we’ll go back to the cluster on the day of the burn to light a low-intensi-
ty fire around the trees for added protection.”
Barnes also strategizes the timing of the scheduled prescribed burns
to maintain the woodpeckers’ habitat.
“Right now, we’re burning in the dormant season. But we’re consid-
ering the benefits of adding smaller scale growing-season burns into
the rotation. Those units would be less than 1,000 acres in size and
would be burned sometime between July and September instead of
December through March. A growing season burn would be more
effective in managing hardwood encroachment, as it wilts the leaves
and ruptures the bark of sapling trees.”
While the wilderness area’s primary focus is maintaining and improv-
ing habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker, the same management
efforts that benefit the woodpecker also benefit many other species. A red-cockaded woodpecker, a federally endangered
“A lot of songbirds will nest and feed in the same areas as the wood- species found in the Wildlife Department’s McCurtain
County Wilderness Area, perches outside its cavity nest on
peckers. And the newly burned areas will have lots of green grass and a pine tree.
flowering plants later this spring and summer. That will be great for
turkey hens and poults, and does and fawns.”
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To ensure habitat is available to species beyond red-cockaded wood-
more about red-cockaded
peckers throughout the year, the Wildlife Department staggers its pre-
woodpeckers:
scribed burning efforts.
“We burn our units on a three-year rotation,” Barnes said. “That
means almost every unit gets the benefit of a prescribed fire in a three-
year period, but that also means we’re leaving unburned habitat for
turkeys to nest in, and does and fawns to bed in every year.
“A prescribed fire really is the best tool we have to manage so many
acres. We have to strategize the best way to apply it as a management
tool, but the results to our wildlife populations and habitats are proof
that it works.”

(Prescribed burning efforts on the McCurtain County Wilderness Area are
funded in part by the Wildlife Department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service’s Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program grant F21AF02826.)

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