Resetting succession for wildlife

Habitat enhancement returns an area to an earlier successional stage through tilling, mowing, rollerchopping, and prescribed fire. Fields managed for bison are tilled, planted, and fertilized with crops such as oats, turnips, and grasses, while mowing, tilling, and prescribed fire promote early successional grasses and sedges before grasslands give way to woody shrubs. Bison forage in these early successional fields but also use late successional spruce forests for cover. Mechanical treatments such as crushing and rollerchopping have been used to improve habitat for moose and grouse by breaking trees at the base in winter and chopping woody debris to speed decomposition, while preserved root systems allow young trees to regenerate quickly. Older aspen stands are rollerchopped so young shoots can grow into browse for moose, and disturbed aspen and willow also provide young growth eaten by bison. Sharp-tailed and ruffed grouse benefit from the varied patchwork of aspen forest created by these treatments. Rollerchopped spruce also creates fuel breaks in mature spruce stands that give fire staff safer and more effective places to work and can help slow or stop fire. Prescribed fire resets forest succession, stimulates grasses and sedges in open fields, top-kills woody shrubs such as aspen and willow so young shoots regenerate from intact roots, and in spruce stands is intended to mimic wildfire and create varied early successional plant communities. Effective prescribed fires produce a patchwork of successional stages that provides important habitat for bison, moose, grouse, and songbirds.

Deltana, Alaska · United States