Family-Outdoors

Welcoming Fire Back to the Landscape Prescribed burning at Fahl Waterfowl Production Area. Photo by Alex Galt/USFWS. Fire is good for monarchs? Yes. The blackened, charred remains of a prairie after a prescribed burn might look catastrophic, but the opposite is the case when it comes to monarch health. To understand how prescribed burning benefits habitat for monarchs and other prairie wildlife, you first need to know what makes prairies look and function the way they do. Techniques, like prescribed burning, when combined with other restoration efforts, collectively creates monarch habitat. A great example of this in action is at  Morris Wetland Management District  in Minnesota. Every year Morris biologists make sure to include milkweed and more than 40 other native wildflower seeds in new prairie plantings. This habitat has direct benefits for monarchs and other prairie species by providing food and shelter during all stages of a monarch’s life while in Minnesota....

(Photo credit: Wikipedia ) At its April meeting, the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission accepted a donation from the 89er Chapter of Quail Forever to benefit quail habitat in northwest Oklahoma.             The donation includes specialized equipment for conducting prescribed burns to be used on the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation's Beaver River Wildlife Management Area in northwest Oklahoma.             For years, wildlife professionals have promoted the benefits of prescribed fire to wildlife habitat, particularly as it pertains quail. The equipment donation will help improve habitat through prescribed burns that eliminate brushy overgrowth and promote new growth of beneficial native vegetation.             According to Alan Peoples, chief of wildlife for the Wildlife Department, newly acquired portions of Beaver River WMA stand to benefit from prescribed burning be...