Prescribed fire in ecosystem management at National Wildlife Refuges. Kaib, Mark ^*,1, Whitney, Jeffery^*,1, ¹ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Albuquerque, NM

ABSTRACT- Prescribed fire is a fundamental land management practice used to emulate natural ecological processes at Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) across the United States. The FWS has been using prescribed fire on its lands since the 1930s, and treated an average of 240,000 acres per year from 1996-2000. In 2003, the FWS treated 35% of the total Department of Interiors (DOI; FWS, NPS, BLM, and BIA) hazardous fuels acres, using only 13% of the DOI budget allocation. In 2003, 1,161 prescribed burns were conducted covering 276,615 acres at 175 NWR. Prescribed fire is managed by Refuges to maintain and restore fire-adapted ecosystems, wildlife habitat, and biological diversity, and to control invasive and non-native species. Fire is used to manage rangelands across the Refuge System including but not limited to coastal, tall-grass, mid-grass, mixed-grass, and short-grass prairies, desert grassland, and wetland habitats. Refuge case studies will be presented that illustrate the breadth of the NWR prescribed fire program including prescribed fire objectives, fire research, fire effects monitoring, and adaptive management on range-related habitats.

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