page_title: Fire ecology
section_title: Fire as a management tool
hierarchical_section_title: Fire ecology / Fire as a management tool
caption_attribution_description: English: Prescribed Burn in Oak Savannah in Van Buren County, Iowa.
context_page_description: Fire ecology is a scientific discipline concerned with natural processes involving fire in an ecosystem and the ecological effects, the interactions between fire and the abiotic and biotic components of an ecosystem, and the role as an ecosystem process. Many ecosystems, particularly prairie, savanna, chaparral and coniferous forests, have evolved with fire as an essential contributor to habitat vitality and renewal. Many plant species in fire-affected environments require fire to germinate, establish, or to reproduce. Wildfire suppression not only eliminates these species, but also the animals that depend upon them.
  Campaigns in the United States have historically molded public opinion to believe that wildfires are always harmful to nature. This view is based on the outdated beliefs that ecosystems progress toward an equilibrium and that any disturbance, such as fire, disrupts the harmony of nature. More recent ecological research has shown, however, that fire is an integral component in the function and biodiversity of many natural habitats, and that the organisms within these communities have adapted to withstand, and even to exploit, natural wildfire.
context_section_description: Restoration ecology is the name given to an attempt to reverse or mitigate some of the changes that humans have caused to an ecosystem. Controlled burning is one tool that is currently receiving considerable attention as a means of restoration and management. Applying fire to an ecosystem may create habitats for species that have been negatively impacted by fire suppression, or fire may be used as a way of controlling invasive species without resorting to herbicides or pesticides. However, there is debate as to what state managers should aim to restore their ecosystems to, especially as to whether "natural" means pre-human or pre-European. Native American use of fire, not natural fires, historically maintained the diversity of the savannas of North America. When, how, and where managers should use fire as a management tool is a subject of debate.
caption: Prescribed Burn in Oak Savannah in Iowa
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