What's good for the Black-backed Woodpecker is good for restoration of burned California forests.
What's good for the Black-backed Woodpecker is good for restoration of burned California forests. The birds' unique relationship with fire underpins the latest research into improved post-fire management. A study published in Ecological Applications describes a new tool that factors how fires burn into forest management decisions and turns science into action for wildlife conservation.
"Wildfire is like a 10,000-piece puzzle, and climate change is rearranging the pieces," said lead author Andrew Stillman with the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "Gigantic, severe fires are becoming the new norm in California due to drought, longer burn seasons, and dense forests. But birds do really well in landscapes that are 'pyrodiverse'– areas where fire results in uneven patches burned at high, medium, and low severity."
Read more at: Cornell University
What pyrodiversity looks like: a mosaic of burned, partially burned, and living trees after a wildfire in Montana. (Photo Credit: Jeremy Roberts)
