The Virtue of Prescribed Burns
BY Herschel Smith
8 hours, 53 minutes ago
I’ve remarked before about the virtue and even necessity of controlled – managed – prescribed burns. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for other things too.
Adams says the location had a lot to do with the number of ticks swarming the deer carcass. The animal came from an area of Oklahoma with dense vegetation and no recent prescribed fire, which can create a perfect storm for ticks.
“This region tends to produce deer with heavier parasite loads,” Adams says. “But this was an extreme case, even for there.”
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“Young fawns don’t move much. That’s their survival mechanism,” Adams says. “In areas that have lots of ticks, they will just cover the fawns. They’ll be all around their eyes, nose, and mouth. In those cases, ticks can actually kill fawns.”
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Ongoing research from Craig Harper at the University of Tennessee is exploring how prescribed burning can impact tick populations. Early findings suggest that fire could be an effective tool for reducing ticks, in addition to its known benefits for habitat and forage.
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