Prescribed fire provides a multitude of benefits for a given landscape including the improvement of wildlife habitat and vegetation conditions, and the reduction of fire danger by mitigating fuel loading. That habitat “help” is on the way in the northwest portion of the Sierra Madre Range on the Medicine Bow National Forest of southern Wyoming.
“We are working with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Platte Valley Habitat Partnership,” said Steve Loose, U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist. “The burn is in habitat that is winter range and transition range for big game. Transition range refers to a transition from winter habitat to summer habitat. Broadly, we are trying to add diversity to the plant communities in the area.”
RMEF believes in many habitat stewardship tools including prescribed burning, forest thinning, seeding and noxious weed treatments to improve wildlife habitat and overall forest health.
(Photo source: Wyoming Wildland Firefighters)