However, others maintain that the payback period was too long for intentional burning. Unattended campfires near berry fields during dry late summer or fall weather could have accounted for many fires. Many have value as ornamentals or fruit-producers in backyard gardens. The big huckleberry, because of qualities such as drought-tolerance and high fruit yield, has potential for use in developing hybrid commercial cultivars suited to drier upland sites. It has also been used in landscaping as a ground cover.
Huckleberries provide valuable food and cover for a variety of wildlife species.
Areas dominated by a huckleberry understory often serve as important summer range for deer and elk. Elk may feed on huckleberry browse during much of the summer, but use is often greatest early in the season. In some areas, elk also feed on twigs during the winter months. Roosevelt elk on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington eat twigs from spring through fall, although use tends to be greatest in early spring. Huckleberry is an extremely valuable grizzly bear food.