Prescribed fire in longleaf pine ecosystems: fire managers’ perspectives on priorities, constraints, and future prospects

Background Projected trajectories of climate and land use change over the remainder of the twenty-first century may result in conditions and situations that require flexible approaches to conservation planning and practices. For example, prescribed burning is a widely used management tool for promot...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Fire ecology 2022-12, Vol.18 (1), Article 27
Main Authors: Kupfer, John A., Lackstrom, Kirsten, Grego, John M., Dow, Kirstin, Terando, Adam J., Hiers, J. Kevin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Air quality
Aversion
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Burning
Climate change
Combustion
Criteria
Ecology
Ecosystems
Endangered species
Forestry
Growing season
Land management
Land use
Life Sciences
Managers
Original Research
Pine trees
Pinus palustris
Prescribed fire
Public lands
Risk aversion
Strategic management
Sustainability
Threatened species
Urban development
Urban sprawl
Urbanization
Wildland-urban interface
Wildlife conservation
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Summary:Background Projected trajectories of climate and land use change over the remainder of the twenty-first century may result in conditions and situations that require flexible approaches to conservation planning and practices. For example, prescribed burning is a widely used management tool for promoting longer-term resilience and sustainability in longleaf pine ecosystems of the southeastern United States, but regional stressors such as climatic warming, changing fire conditions, and an expanding wildland-urban interface may challenge its application. To facilitate the development of fire management strategies that account for such changes, we surveyed nearly 300 fire managers to elicit information on the criteria used for prioritizing burn sites, current burning practices and constraints, and expectations for changes in burning opportunities, including those pertaining to climate change and urban growth. Results Respondents noted that their most common criteria for selecting longleaf pine stands for burning were fire history, ecosystem health, and fuel reduction, with the presence of threatened and endangered species also given priority by public land managers. Many respondents (38%) cited recent burn frequencies that fall short of historic burn intervals. Barriers to burning included legal, institutional, and managerial constraints, such as proximity to human developments, public concerns, and risk aversion, as well as environmental and resource constraints, including weather, air quality restrictions, and lack of personnel, equipment, or funding. Roughly half of all respondents expect that opportunities to burn will be reduced over the next 30 years, particularly during the growing season. Fire manager perceptions of factors that will limit prescribed burning in the future include a similar suite of constraints, many of which will be affected by projected regional changes in land use and climate. Conclusions On an organizational level, burn window availability and resource limitations constrain prescribed burning practices. More broadly, policy and legal frameworks coupled with trends in urbanization and climate change are expected to interact with operational constraints to challenge managers’ abilities to implement landscape-scale burning strategies and achieve restoration goals. Additional research and engagement with fire managers are needed to investigate opportunities for introducing policy flexibility, leveraging shared management interests, and d
ISSN:1933-9747
1933-9747
DOI:10.1186/s42408-022-00151-6