Plant species changes in the habitat slow about seven years after a prescribed burn. In another four years, change is fairly minimal. This finding indicates the need for regular prescribed burns, the researchers say. These conditions are the factors that preserve the endemic species that are adapted to sandhills. Suppressing fire can be costly, not only in terms of losing endemic species, but also in terms of catastrophic damage to the environment, Dr. McLeod says.
Fire suppression allows fuels, such as leaf litter, to build up.
Then when a fire gets started, such as it did in Yellowstone National Park several years ago, the results are devastating, he adds. The sandhills of the Carolinas were originally sand dunes. As ice ages have raised and lowered the ocean level, beaches have formed where water met the land. Each time a beach formed against a Carolina shoreline, a giant sandhill was left behind when the ocean receded. Scientists are still seeking answers about the ecology of sandhills.