‘Any Day is a Potential Burn Day’

While many know Florida as the Sunshine State, few may know it for its more foreboding title: Lightning Capital of the United States.

Florida’s temperature, humidity and coastal winds create perfect conditions for lightning. The state consistently experiences more lightning per square mile than anywhere else in the country.

For turkeys and their habitat, this means fire – a lot of fire.

Fire, historically ignited by lightning, has shaped Florida’s ecosystems since the formulation of the Coastal Plain. Many Florida wildlife species adapted to not only coexist with fire but also require it for survival, depending on the habitat it creates.

Florida is home to two subspecies of wild turkey: the Eastern and the endemic Osceola. Each is abundant and has adapted to Florida’s diverse ecosystems.

Wild turkeys require a range of habitats that change with their daily needs and various life stages. For example, hens seek thicker vegetation for nesting, while poults depend on early successional areas with a wealth of forbs, grasses and insects. Open grasslands are also optimal for foraging, but forested escape cover should also be readily accessible. Wild turkeys thrive when these varying habitat characteristics are available. Maintaining quality turkey habitat takes constant and dynamic land disturbance. Fire is the right tool for the job.

Fire often creates a “patchy” landscape, one with diverse successional stages, structure and composition. This mosaic of different plant communities creates ideal habitat conditions for foraging, roosting, brooding, nesting and escaping predators.

Florida’s high temperatures and humidity levels drive a uniquely productive growing season that encompasses most of the year. Near constant attention is needed. Optimal brooding cover can become largely unusable for wild turkeys if unmanaged for more than three years. Depending on the region of the state, fire is best applied at one- to three-year intervals to promote Florida’s wild turkey habitat.

Many turkey enthusiasts express concerns about fire harming turkey nesting success. It is important to remember, though, that turkeys have existed alongside fire for millennia and are adapted to respond to it. If a nest is lost due to fire, which is uncommon, hens readily nest again. In fact, fire provides immediate benefits for turkeys. It is common to see turkeys foraging while the ground is still smoldering – burnt insects are a great snack.

The prescribed fire strategies that are best for managing turkey populations also benefit many other grassland wildlife species. For example, gopher tortoises are a keystone species in Florida forests due to their deep burrows, which provide use to over 350 other species. The tortoises’ main food source is low-growing plants near their burrows. In areas where fire suppression has reduced the availability of herbaceous groundcover, it also resulted in gopher tortoise population declines and reductions in their range. Commensal species, a term relevant to creatures that symbiotically benefit from using the tortoise burrows, are also suffering losses.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers, another keystone species, require an open savanna habitat and mature longleaf pines, which are primarily facilitated by fire. This bird is federally endangered due to habitat loss.

In a world where human development and activity reign, lightning-ignited fires are often suppressed. Safety concerns, land use practices and simple public opinion are among the reasons why. But to meet habitat objectives, land managers must pick up the torch, taking fire disturbance into their own hands by conducting safe and regulated prescribed burns.

This responsibility has long been recognized and implemented in Florida, where the saying, “Any day is a potential burn day,” is taken seriously. Historically, many areas of Florida maintained their local fire regimen, even as the fire suppression doctrine took hold in other regions of North America. Today, Florida is considered the national model for prescribed burning legislation and regularly leads the country in annual acreage treated with prescribed fire. By continuing and sharing these practices, Florida not only supports Southeastern U.S. ecosystems, it honors a land management legacy of providing quality wild turkey habitat.

Scan the code to see Florida conservation work in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC5x6r7YEcY

By Juliana Ofalt, FWC Wild Turkey and Furbearer Management Program Coordinator

Emma Zeitler, FWC Assistant Wild Turkey Management Program Coordinator