Burning and Turkeys

[Gaswamp]

Does growing season prescribed fire affect turkey nesting? - Tall Timbers

Wild turkeys, like a host of other ground-nesting birds in the Southeast, need regular prescribed fire to maintain their habitat. As many land managers start to head into the woods […]

talltimbers.org

 

[turkeykirk]

Good read.

 

[buckpasser]

Good article. I’m glad there are scientists providing realistic data driven advice like this!

 

[Arrow3]

Call me hard headed but I just can't get on board with burning during nesting season. Yes, burning is beneficial but I want to see it done at other times. Let's try something different.

 

[Gaswamp]

Call me hard headed but I just can't get on board with burning during nesting season. Yes, burning is beneficial but I want to see it done at other times. Let's try something different.

Brandon I think in an ideal world that I would agree. Most woodlands would be better habitat if they were rotated on 1–3-year winter burn cycles.

However, there are blocks of timber that have been neglected over the years. This would require a hotter fire than a winter burn to killl some of the undesirable species.

I do think that this should only be done on smaller blocks. Less than 50 acres, maybe even 25 would be more conducive for hot fire and managing for turkeys. Unfortunately, we often time see 250-500 acre blocks burned after April.

 

[Long Cut]

Call me hard headed but I just can't get on board with burning during nesting season. Yes, burning is beneficial but I want to see it done at other times. Let's try something different.

The overall goal for burning during nesting season (April-June) is to create a hot enough fire to kill midstory trees. This can only be done from April-June typically.

Once all of the nutrient reserves transfer from the saplings/trees root system to it’s shoot system during Spring green up, this is the best time to kill midstory trees with a hot enough fire to “pop” that cambium layer.

A dormant season burn (December-early March) will not kill midstory trees and only kill a small portion of sapling trees. This is because the trees nutrient reserves are still down in the root system and haven’t begun moving up into the branches yet.

The goal for late Spring-Early Summer fires is to set back the midstory tree growth. Once that’s accomplished, dormant season burns can typically control saplings if done on a 1-2 year cycle.

 

[BASS1FUN]

The public land I hunt they burn before the season starts but what gets me is that they let the fields grow waist high or higher and they bushhog it while the hens are nesting and busting up the eggs SMH

 

[Kev]

The overall goal for burning during nesting season (April-June) is to create a hot enough fire to kill midstory trees. This can only be done from April-June typically.

Once all of the nutrient reserves transfer from the saplings/trees root system to it’s shoot system during Spring green up, this is the best time to kill midstory trees with a hot enough fire to “pop” that cambium layer.

A dormant season burn (December-early March) will not kill midstory trees and only kill a small portion of sapling trees. This is because the trees nutrient reserves are still down in the root system and haven’t begun moving up into the branches yet.

The goal for late Spring-Early Summer fires is to set back the midstory tree growth. Once that’s accomplished, dormant season burns can typically control saplings if done on a 1-2 year cycle.

I agree. Fire is a tool that is used differently in various timber stands. Sometimes, a warm season burn can turn an area that otherwise would be void of nest into the perfect nesting habitat.

 

[Swamprat]

Burning is a great tool if used properly but we seem to forget why certain properties burn at what we think is bad times for different reasons. In my area I see folks burn 100-200 acres at a time but instead of doing a rotational burn they wait several years before they torch it back up after the fuel load has built back up.

Some might could really care less about turkeys, some need to get rid of unwanted tree species, etc, etc.

In the end game ground nesting birds will benefit after a year or two.

 

[Jason C]

never understood it myself either

 

[Core Lokt]

Call me hard headed but I just can't get on board with burning during nesting season. Yes, burning is beneficial but I want to see it done at other times. Let's try something different.

Around here (weather permitting) most burns start in March and are done by nesting season unless it's an early season.

 

[Long Cut]

Just food for thought. A Biologist made this comment when walking a farm with me.

Timber practices have drastically changed in more recent years.
Routine burning has been mostly replaced by aerial broadcast applications of herbicides such as Imazypyr, Triclopyr etc… leaving behind desolate wastelands of nothing but pine trees.

The liability of having a fire jump a break and burn a field, house, cars etc.. having to hire crews to prep breaks, rain delays, burn, smoke conditions & annoying neighbors or adjacent highways etc… is eliminated when you hire a contractor with insurance to spray an herbicide that kills all the vegetation, minus your pine trees.

So ask yourself, is that 1 “nesting season” fire killing all of the turkeys, or is the poor wildlife habitat that now encompasses a majority of the private lands in the Southeast a possibility?

Maybe higher predator numbers, paired with poor habitat becomes an issue?

 

[HermanMerman]

Three years ago, our lease was burned on opening weekend. Two years ago, the adjacent public land was burned opening weekend. Last spring was awful quiet.