The “Fire on the Forty” program is an endeavor to promote use of prescribed fire across Mississippi through educational outreach and cost-sharing with private landowners.
This is an excerpt from the revised report “Introduction to Prescribed Fire in Southern Ecosystems” authored by the USDA Forest Service, Research and Development Southern Research Station in August 2012, revised 2015 and 2018.
Prescribed fire, timber stand improvement and mechanical removal of invasive species around openings was integrated across the Stearns District of the Daniel Boone National Forest.
NWTF Super Funds in Kansas have been provided to support prescribed burning on both private and public lands to improve many acres of wildlife habitat by controlling undesirable woody species and improving grass and forb species.
The Darby Ranger District is hand-thinning timber and using prescribed fire on 645 acres of the Como Horselick Project to reduce fuel loads and restore historic ponderosa pine savannah.
Improvements include opening the forest canopy, reducing tree density and promoting increased tender, understory forage for feeding and nesting habitat.
In partnership with the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, the NWTF created two water wells for wildlife in the Cedar Bluff Wildlife Area.
Missouri’s New Hunter Recruitment Dove Field Initiative is a cooperative effort between the NWTF, Quail Forever, the Conservation Federation of Missouri, the Missouri Prairie Foundation and the Missouri Department of Conservation.
The NWTF collaborated with the USDA Forest Service and the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks on the Frenchtown Face Project – a project just west of Missoula, Montana, focused on prescribed burning and thinning ground cover in the Lolo National Forest to help wildlife and improve habitat.
Through a Fiscal Year 2019 Oklahoma NWTF Super Fund grant to the Oklahoma Prescribed Burn Association, equip local prescribed burning associations to enable prescribed burning operations on private lands throughout focal landscapes in in south central, north central and northeastern counties.
Tools and techniques include hand-felling with chainsaws, lopping and scattering, girdling and mechanical piling to remove ponderosa pine and spruce from within and around aspen, birch and bur oak stands in the Sugarloaf project area.
The NWTF’s Save the Habitat. Save the Hunt. initiative is now focused on maintaining those healthy, sustainable and huntable wild turkey populations for generations to come. An important part of doing that is active habitat management, which includes the use of prescribed burning or prescribed fire.
The NWTF has found a unique way to support their continued R3 efforts in Georgia. Lynn Lewis, NWTF conservation field manager, certified wildlife biologist and a steering committee member of the Georgia R3 Initiative, plans and hosts the annual steering committee meeting.
With budget constraints, sustaining the health, diversity and productivity of the nation’s forests and grasslands has become a challenge. Using partnerships, such as the one with the NWTF, the work is being completed.
Economical pest management practices are helping control nonnative, invasive plants such as tamarisk and Russian knapweed, as well as to re-establish native plants in the historic floodplain.
“By mentoring friends, not only do they get the Learn to Hunt experience, but they also may have a future hunting partner for years to come,” she said of the program’s young mentors.
Through a special program organized by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, the NWTF is helping open hunting access on private and public lands in Wyoming.
John D. Burk, NWTF district biologist for Missouri and Illinois, said the NWTF and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources have worked to re-establish open woodland areas at Siloam Springs State Park in Adams and Brown counties and Hidden Springs State Park in Shelby County.
The NWTF’s 42nd annual Convention and Sport Show’s Conservation Conference brought together nongovernmental organizations, government partners, private companies and more interested in helping to preserve our nation’s precious wildlife.
The Regional Conservation Partnership Program is a four- year agreement with the Wildlife Management Institute to assist landowners in creating diverse habitat
In this project, prescribed burning is being used to enhance diverse native grass stands and forbs that provide brood-rearing and nesting habitat for healthy longleaf pine ecosystems.
A new exhibit at the Allegany State Park Administration Building Museum commemorates the park’s role in trapping and transferring wild turkeys to other areas within New York and other Northeastern states.
More than 45,000 acres in and around the Osceola focal landscape within central Florida have been treated with prescribed fire and herbicide over the last two years
Developing safe fire breaks and creating small openings in timber, planting of shortleaf pine and using controlled burns minimize the long-term effects of devastating wildfires in Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest and the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area
Work to improve habitat for a variety of wildlife will now be conducted year-round across Colorado thanks to a unique new public-private partnership between Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Colorado State Land Board and the National Wild Turkey Federation.
Establishing young forest habitat on private lands through the Wildlife Management Institute’s four-year Regional Conservation Partnership Program award from the NRCS on private lands in New York
Regenerating older maple and basswood forests to red oak, white oak and bur oak during a three-year project on the Winona, Minnesota, Whitewater WMA and Richard Dorer State Forest
Five-year oak woodland and grassland restoration project to boost populations of Rio Grande wild turkeys, northern bobwhite quail, other grassland birds and white-tailed deer from south-central Oklahoma to southeast Texas
A three-year agreement between the NWTF and NRCS promotes restored, native mixed shortleaf pine and hardwood forests in Florence, Decatur, Moulton and Huntsville, Alabama
Prescribed burning of Montana’s Lolo National Forest is helping game species — wild turkeys, ruffed grouse, elk and mule deer — and nongame animals, such as flammulated owls and pileated woodpeckers
“We can’t do the work that we want to do without state agencies,” explained Ricky. “We’re just a nonprofit so to have a partner like FWC is crucial, it’s critical. We could not even come close to making the impact we do without them.”
At a recent meeting of the NWTF Oklahoma State Chapter’s board of directors, funding was allocated to assist Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation in the acquisition of a nearly 1,400-acre property located in Osage County, Oklahoma.
Several strategic partners are pooling efforts under a cooperative agreement to work 16 unique projects in the George Washington and Jefferson national forests.
Cooperative efforts near Bison, South Dakota, by the USDA Forest Service and the NWTF are improving habitat for many animals, including ruffed grouse, sharp-tailed grouse, Merriam’s wild turkeys, deer and elk.
