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County using fire as 'important tool' for forest management, rare bird nesting

Replanting will begin next month at the Simcoe County's Museum Tract forest, site of a controlled burn last September. 'We think of fire as a destructive force. We need to think of it as a natural part of forest regeneration,' says forester

Ontario’s forests evolved with fire.

Started by lightning, for millennia fire has cleared out underbrush, killed insect and disease pests, created openings where a natural succession of species could provide diverse habitat.

Some species of trees, like the jack pine, rely on fire to open their tightly-sealed cones, releasing their seeds to the charred landscape.

But forest fires have been seen the enemy of human infrastructure and forest resources in recent times, and fire suppression has been the norm.

It’s a view that is beginning to change.

Forest managers are starting to “integrate fire back into management practices,” said Graeme Davis, County of Simcoe forester. “It really is an important tool in our toolbox, as forest managers. We think of fire as a destructive force. We need to think of it as a natural part of forest regeneration.”

Last September, the County of Simcoe carried out a controlled burn on 30 hectares (about 74 acres) of county forest in the Museum Tract, adjacent to the Simcoe County Museum.

It was more than a fire to clear out the build-up of debris on the forest floor, from leaf litter, to dead branches, that could fuel out-of-control wildfires. It was more than a way to eliminate invasive species and facilitate forest renewal.

The controlled burn was part of a long-term plan to create nesting habitat for the endangered Kirtland’s warbler – a goal that made the project “unique,” said Davis.  

“Kirtland’s warbler is an extremely rare bird. It was almost extirpated,” Davis said. The bird nests on the ground in young, dense pine forest – like the forests of jack pine that spring up naturally, following a forest fire. 

Before forest suppression, there was always plenty of breeding area for the warbler, as a result of forest fires. Even in the mid-1900s, forestry programs that saw the planting of extensive tracts of coniferous forest resulted in a resurgence of Kirtland’s warbler.

More recently, habitat loss resulted in a steep decline. At one point, there were only 50 nesting pairs of Kirtland’s, worldwide.

The state of Michigan began looking at restoring the pine forests, not only for forest management reasons but for warbler nesting habitat. Organizations like the environmental consulting firm Savanta Inc., American Forests, and Forestry Ontario were looking for similar opportunities in Ontario, where Kirtland’s warbler was once found – and the Museum Tract proved to be the most suitable location.

The plan originally called for two days of controlled burning, to eliminate the non-native Scotch pine and other invasives, and clear the site for replanting. Weather conditions and a wet fall meant that there was only one day of burning – the rest of the clearance was mechanical.

Preparation not only involved clearing vegetation, but regrading some areas – and now the site is ready for the next step: replanting with 160,000 native trees, as well as native understory vegetation and shrubs.

The planting is being contracted out to a firm used to large-scale plantings.

“It’s got to be the right species, the right stock,” Davis explained. “The biggest single species is jack pine – that’s the main target species we’re looking at for Kirtland’s… recreating dense, young jack pine that would have occurred naturally after wildfire.”

Jack pine is also well-adapted to the dry soils at the site, once a gravel pit. A total of 106,000 jack pine seedlings will be planted, with a smaller number of red and white pine. Twenty-five per cent of the site will be “mixed habitat” – natural openings, and plantings of black cherry, eastern red cedar, red and white oak.

Because Kirtland’s warbler is ground-nesting, the project also had to look at the kind of ground vegetation preferred by the species, something that has taken research and a huge effort during the past year.

The county hired Mary Gartshore, ecological restoration consultant and native plant specialist, to identify and collect the needed seeds – representing more than 80 different native species, “everything from shrub species like alternate-leaved dogwood, to native sedges, pin cherry, chokecherry, native honeysuckle, golden rod, native asters,” Davis said.

Tree planting is scheduled to begin April 15, and to be completed by early May, within a three-week window for the best results.

“You want to get the planting done as early in the spring as you can,” he said. Understory plants will be seeded by hand.

It is expected that it will take a few years before the pines are large enough to provide nesting habitat. Then, the project is expected to ensure at least 17 years of suitable warbler habitat.

“Forest habitat creation is a piece of what we do all the time,” Davis said. “This was unique because of the focus, and the extra effort of what is being done on that site to create nesting habitat.”

One of the reasons for choosing the Museum Tract for the project, beside its size, was the fact that it is fairly public.

“There’s lots of opportunity for education,” said Davis, and the county has been working with the museum on ways to educate the public about forest restoration, ecology, the Kirtland’s warbler, and the importance of fire in the forest cycle.

The county also consulted with the Historical Construction Equipment Association (HCEA). The organization has used the gravel pit for its demonstrations of historical and antique construction equipment at events like the Last Blast at the museum. The HCEA will continue to use a portion of the quarry, but will be “constrained” in a smaller area, Davis said.

The three-year project was budgeted at $340,800. Nearly half of the funds will come from the government of Canada, through Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program for species at risk.

Fire is back in the county’s forest management toolkit. In 2014, the county carried out a controlled burn in Clearview at the Brentwood tract – not to create specific habitat, but to manage a red pine plantation “at the end of its cycle,” Davis said.

Normally, a young forest establishes underneath the mature canopy. In this case, both the mature forest and the understory were in poor health. The county opted for “full site conversion” – harvesting the red pines, burning off debris that included tree tops, releasing nutrients from the soil, and preparing the site for replanting.

This spring, there will be another controlled burn in Adjala-Tosorontio – again, for a slightly different reason.

“It’s very specifically to regenerate oak,” another species that requires fire to maintain its presence, said Davis. “Without fire, oak loses out over the long term.”

The burn will clear out the majority of young sugar maple seedlings that otherwise would take over.

“We’re always thinking about diversity in our management practices, even as now we think about land acquisition,” putting together larger, contiguous blocks of forest to provide wildlife habitat, he said. The use of fire can help foresters regenerate – preserving habitat for species that include the eastern hognose snake, whippoorwill, and the Kirtland’s warbler.


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Miriam King

About the Author: Miriam King

Miriam King is a journalist and photographer with Bradford Today, covering news and events in Bradford West Gwillimbury and Innisfil.
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