Prioritizing prescribed fire at the landscape scale to overcome burning deficits and meet ecosystem management objectives: The case study of Eglin AFB

Managing prescribed fire at the landscape scale represents both practical and ecological constraints to the conservation of native fire-dependent biodiversity. The 183,000-ha Eglin AFB landscape represents the largest track of intact longleaf pine forest in the southeastern USA.  Eglin AFB contains nearly 2/3^rd of the remnant old growth longleaf forests, is a core recovery population for the federally endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker, and anchors the 433,000-ha Gulf Coastal Plains Ecosystem Partnership.  The 30-year average burn program of 12,000 ha was insufficient to meet ecosystem management goals, and a fixed rotation of these few acres led to the deterioration of many ecological objectives across the landscape. Without the prospect of new management resources, a prioritization process was developed to address this need.  Limited prescribed burning was applied to the portion of the landscape with the greatest overlap of ecosystem management objectives allowing return intervals that were skewed to the highest frequencies than fuels would allow. The concurrent prioritization of other management, such as invasive species control and ecological forestry, was concentrated in a core conservation area. Practically, this prioritization process has contributed to an increase in annual burn area by 2.5x the long-term average. Hyper-frequent fires in the highest priority burn blocks reduced fuel loads and contributed to wider prescription windows; revisiting blocks frequently contributed to familiarity of expected fire behavior, and frequent fire allowed for increased fire-use from unplanned ignitions.  Monitoring data of habitat and species that depend on frequent fire show a concurrent improvement in ecological health metrics to support this approach.  Short-term costs to this prioritization approach include the deterioration of other habitat not within the core conservation area, but increased fire capacity leads to greater frequency outside the zone of hyper-frequent fire.  Monitoring data has shown the conservation benefits of a hyperfrequent approach to prescribed fire prioritization.