They hatched, but the owlets appeared to have delayed visual development. The new eggs hatched, and the owlets developed normally. Fire was historically an important disturbance in many of the plant communities short-eared owl occupy. It created grass patches within shrublands, maintained the open structure of parklands, and prevented woody plant invasion of marshlands and grasslands. Although much of short-eared owl decline can be attributed to urbanization, at least some is probably due to succession of open plant communities to closed ones as a result of fire suppression.
Fire can maintain or expand short-eared owl habitat.
Because summer or fall fires are usually more severe than spring fires, they would probably kill more woody vegetation, opening up habitat as well as avoiding damage to reproduction. Partial burns reduce cover less uniformly, but should result in higher recruitment of ground-nesting birds than would complete burns conducted during the nesting season.