While some insect populations decline as a result of fire, ants seem to thrive. Ant populations have been recorded as more numerous in burned areas than in unburned areas. An important species in prairies, ant populations increase after a prairie fire. Plants and animals that have physiological and behavioral adaptations to survive in habitats frequented by fire live in fire communities. Today, people are beginning to recognize that fire is not always destructive.
Fire is merely a means of change in ecosystems .