The Big Takeaway (TL;DR)
Conducting controlled prescribed burns at tight 1-to-2-year intervals drastically maximizes the amount of high-protein native forage available to white-tailed deer. Instead of waiting for traditional 3-to-5-year rotations, deer managers can use high-frequency fire to force nature to replace woody brush with an abundance of wild weeds and legumes during critical summer nutritional stress periods.
What the Study Found
- Objective: Researchers measured the production and nutritional quality of preferred white-tailed deer forage within mature pine–hardwood stands subjected to 1- or 2-year fire-return intervals inside a 640-acre enclosure.
- Key Discovery: While traditional management rules suggest a broader 3-to-5-year burn rotation, increasing the fire frequency to a 1-to-2-year loop directly maximizes the production of vital forbs and wild legumes while aggressively forcing out low-nutrition woody browse.
- Management Impact: Waiting too long between burns allows less digestible brush to dominate. To keep your land’s nutritional carrying capacity at its absolute highest during critical summer antler growth and lactation windows, prioritize high-frequency fire intervals across your pine-hardwood acreage.
Location of Study
- East-Central Alabama, USA (Auburn University Research Enclosure)
Source
- Michael P Glow, Stephen S Ditchkoff, Mark D Smith, Annual Fire Return Interval Influences Nutritional Carrying Capacity of White-Tailed Deer in Pine–Hardwood Forests, Forest Science, Volume 65, Issue 4, August 2019, Pages 483–491, https://doi.org/10.1093/forsci/fxy063