Fire is essential in savanna and woodland management.
Historically, fires from lighting strikes and those lit by Native Americans burned the landscape, keeping the growth of the understory in check.
"You wouldn’t believe this was the same farm if you saw what it looked like when I bought it 40 years ago," Bruce Sassmann said. "Most of it was choked with cedars and scrub. After buying land because of my love of wildlife, I ignored the habitat for too many years. I knew I had to restore the native landscapes on this place for wildlife to flourish, so I called the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) to ask about the wild turkey’s favorite habitat. They said, ‘Big woods that have been thinned and burned.’ I set my first fire in 2008.
"Yesterday, I took a ride around the farm. At one point, a dozen tiny wild turkey poults scrambled to get out of my way. They were there because I burned."
Enormous herds of free roaming buffalo and other grassland ungulates, such as elk, deer and antelope assisted fire in maintaining the habitat. After settlement, with the wide-ranging herds of wildlife extirpated and fire suppressed, savannas and woodlands were swallowed. Nothing was left to control growth. Even more savanna and woodland habitat was cleared and plowed.
"Last year, the fires on the farm began on August 26th,"Â Sassmann said. "The late summer burns set back the warm season grasses in favor of forbs. The grasses are the structure and cover, but the broadleaf plants are the dinner plate for the wildlife. The fire encourages early succession vegetation. The young tender plants attract the bugs. The bugs attract the baby turkey and the baby quail. Great plant diversity and habitat for wildlife doesn’t happen without fire. Land management is driven by the goals of the landowner, but the greatest diversity of habitat and ultimately wildlife exist on a landscape managed with fire."
Through state and federal agencies, and nonprofit conservation organizations like the NWTF, educational and financial support exists for landowners interested in savanna and woodland restoration and management.
John Burk, a NWTF district biologist, said, “Part of my job responsibility is to take dollars we raise and match them with partner dollars to enhance habitat that will make the biggest difference. With turkeys, that means nesting and brood rearing habitat. I can’t think of a more productive acre than open woodlands to achieve this objective.”
Landowners who care about holding wildlife on their property understand and have an appreciation for the importance of increasing offspring survival rates. Proper habitat management is a critical aspect of ensuring wildlife will survive their most vulnerable weeks, those being their first few.
“Nest success and poult survival are two of the most important parameters affecting wild turkey populations, so landowner efforts to create and maintain nesting and brood-rearing habitats are critically important," resource scientist Jason Isabelle said. "The grasses and forbs found growing in savannas and woodlands provide ideal structure for a hen and her brood. Poults can move efficiently through adequate cover as they search for insects. Restoring savannas and woodlands to their original condition is certainly beneficial to the wild turkey, along with a variety of other wildlife species."
Educating landowners about habitat management is no easy task. The Indiana DNR does have information available, and the state agency may also provide services and financial support for boots-on-the-ground efforts.
“In the absence of active forest management, open savannas and woodlands eventually become closed-canopied," Burk said. "They are dependent upon disturbance to keep them in that early successional herbaceous condition hens seek for adequate nesting cover because they support high insect densities required for poult survival. Without proper management, the herbaceous condition providing the food and cover fades away along with the wildlife depending upon it."
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), through funding of the federal Farm Bill, provides millions of dollars to landowners for conservation. This is one reason why the Farm Bill is so critical for conservation across the country.
See you down the trail …