MONTGOMERY-Like many state-owned Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), the Lauderdale and Freedom Hills WMAs are increasing the use of prescribed burning to improve habitats. Although burning has been used on both WMAs in the past, the amount of acres burned will increase from 4,000 to 5,000 annually. This is largely due to land purchases through the Forever Wild Program that began in 2001 by the State Lands Division. To date, Forever Wild has purchased 23,367 acres and 6,668 acres in Freedom Hills and Lauderdale WMAs, respectively. These purchases, along with Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division acquisitions, increased Freedom Hills to 31,996 acres and Lauderdale to 20,343 acres.
Although these increases in acreage are positive and significant, many of the recently purchased tracts have a timber reservation, which means someone else owns the timber rights on the property for a given amount of time. Once the “reserved timber” has been removed from these tracts, the land and future timber management become the responsibility of the state agency that bought it.
Photo courtesy of the National Wild Turkey Federation.
Under current management strategies most of these tracts undergo a herbicide treatment, site prep burn, and then are replanted in pines. Shortleaf pines were chosen over loblolly pines because they are native to the area. In addition to shortleaf pine restoration, some mature tracts of loblolly pines that do not have a timber reservation have been thinned to improve the wildlife habitat. To maintain habitat diversity on the WMAs, all streamside management zones − “the drains” − will be left in hardwoods.
Here is where the big change comes into play. Prescribed burning will be used on Freedom Hills and Lauderdale WMAs to naturally thin pine plantations, control unwanted woody growth, and manage native early successional food and cover plants to benefit all wildlife species. If left alone, these pine plantations will grow so their canopies shade out all understory growth, thus eliminating food and cover for wildlife. Prescribed burning produces a more natural forest that cannot be achieved by simply increasing the spacing of trees at the time of planting. These prescribed burns will kill some of the planted pines, creating a diverse natural habitat instead of creating one large pine plantation that will become stagnant wildlife habitat for many years. These burns will also keep native vegetation at a stage that is beneficial to many wildlife species. For example, bobwhite quail, rabbits, turkeys and many other ground-nesting species require this early successional growth for food and cover.
This goal will be accomplished by burning the same tract about every three years. 
Typically, prescribed burning can be used in shortleaf pines 4 or more years old. These burns will have to be conducted during the fall and spring months to reach desired effects and allow biologists the time that is needed to burn the desired acreage for that year. This means that some burning may have to be done during the hunting season and maybe even into the turkey-nesting season. At times, small trade-offs will occur − a setback of a favorite hunting spot or a few turkey nests destroyed by fire − to provide increased habitat for the future. Another way to say this is that the short-term cost is outweighed by the long-term benefit.
With the reintroduction of prescribed burning on a large scale from now on, wildlife habitat on the Freedom Hills and Lauderdale WMAs will be greatly improved. These lands will no longer have an emphasis on timber production alone. Instead, emphasis will be placed on habitat management for the benefit of wildlife populations. Woody and herbaceous vegetation will be managed to produce an abundance of food and cover for many wildlife species. Prescribed burning will also keep these areas more open to provide the public with increased hunting and wildlife viewing opportunities.
MEDIA RELEASE/Daniel G. Toole, Wildlife Biologist, Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries
