Implementing the expanded prescribed fire program on the Gila National Forest, New Mexico: implications for snag management

Abstract

Efforts to return natural fire to the Gila National Forest, New Mexico, have resulted in controversy regarding management of snags (standing dead trees). The importance of snags for wildlife, especially cavity-dependent birds, is well documented. Although general uses of snags by birds are known (nesting, roosting, perching, and foraging), we know little about the optimal number of snags needed to sustain populations of snag-dependent species. We know less of the types, numbers, sizes, and vigor of snags that would persist under a natural fire regime. Recently, efforts were initiated to understand relationships among snags, birds, and fire in fire-adapted ponderosa pine forests of the southwestern United States. Preliminary results suggest that fire exclusion has resulted in large numbers of old snags (dead greater than or equal to 6 years), but few recent snags (dead

Citation

Boucher, Paul F.; Block, William M.; Benavidez, Gary V.; Wiebe, L. E. 2000. Implementing the expanded prescribed fire program on the Gila National Forest, New Mexico: implications for snag management. In: Moser, W. Keith; Moser, Cynthia E., eds. Fire and forest ecology: innovative silviculture and vegetation management. Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference Proceedings, No. 21. Tallahassee, FL: Tall Timbers Research Station: 104-113