Burning for northern mountain ungulates: effects of prescribed fire

"Prescribed fire is used as a management tool to enhance ungulate habitats. In northeastern British Columbia, up to 7,800 ha are burned annually. Yet relatively few studies have quantified the role of fire on plant and animal response, and whether it enables species such as Stone's sheep (Ovis dalli stonei) and elk (Cervus elaphus). In the Muskwa-Kechika Management Area, we examined the response of Stone's sheep and elk to seasonal changes in forage quantity and quality over an elevation gradient in areas recently burned by prescribed fires versus unburned control areas. We monitored vegetation and fecal-pellet transects at a fine scale and used Landsat imagery, survey flights, and telemetry locations at a landscape scale. One year after burning, forage digestibility and rates of forage growth were higher on burned than unburned areas. At both scales, Stone's sheep and elk always used burns more than unburned areas in winter. Stone's sheep and elk appeared to partition their use of the landscape through topography and land cover. Increased use of burned areas suggests that prescribed fires enhanced habitat value for grazing ungulates at least in the short term. By altering animal distributions, however, use of prescribed fire has the potential to change predator-prey interactions."