Linking fuel, habitat and ground-dwelling mammals in flammable landscapes

Abstract

Prescribed fire is often applied with the goal of reducing fuel loads and lessening the impact of future wildfires on humans. As fuel represents habitat for some animal species, fuel reduction treatments are likely to affect species’ access to resources. Understanding the interrelationships between fuel, habitat and animal occurrence will help managers of flammable landscapes meet the dual objective of reducing fuel loads and conserving biodiversity. In addition, should fuel hazard assessments reflect habitat structure, fuel hazard scores could be used to predict the response of animals to prescribed fire. This would be useful in many regions where fuel hazard assessments are routinely condu..