best time to burn off wildlife’s

[hardwaterfishing]

I just noticed the DNR burning off a wildlife today. when do you think the best time is for them to do it? Doing it now would leave the birds and deer with no shelter over the winter. but doing it in the spring/summer is in the nesting period. What is your opinion?

[vister]

neither. fall burns rid the wildlife, such as pheasants, of a place to hide from the wiley coyote. spring burns may hinder nesting, but nothing is worse than a wet spring. if pheasant eggs do not hatch, hens will keep laying eggs. if they do hatch, and they die, run off, or coons and skunks get em, the hen will not lay another clutch of eggs.

but burning does help rid of dead grass, encouraging fresh new greens.

[spearman]

depend on the wildlife area if there is alot of small trees growing they like to try and kill them or they like to burn native grasses to get them to seed out for better growth next spring my opinion is best to do it in the spring so you get rid of the dead grass and get new growth

[BLACKJACK]

I think the preferred time to burn off the wildlife areas are in the spring, you usually have more moisture and its safer and easier to control. The problem is that it also takes the right weather, low winds and high humidity, they have a lot of areas the want to burn and not enough time to do it in the spring, so they've started burning a few in the fall.

The purpose of a burn is to beat back the woody vegetation; natural succession is that grassland will get overtaken with trees and shrubs if they don't do a periodic burn. A burn also releases the nutrients and reinvigorates the native prairie grasses, go back there next year at this time and see how splendid the grasses look.

Yes I know it sucks that they're burning hunting habitat but they usually try not to burn all the cover in an area, I'm betting that there is another wildlife area, either public or private, nearby.

People (Contact Us Please) about burning in the spring too, look at the long term benefits of better cover vs. the short-term loss of habitat.

[WaveWacker]

It really depends on what your management goals are. Most times burns in the fall are conduct to help control woody vegetation infringement (you get better results in fall). Spring burns really help control cools season weed/grass infringement on Native prairie plantings. Yes there obviously is some loss of habitat in the short term, but management efforts are long term decisions.

[big drift]

They may also be preparing an area for food plots, clearing the area in preperation for spring planting. Typically most game in grass fires this time of year are able to get out of the fire path and if the conditions are right you'll get a slow burn rather then a fast one.