Fire is for the birds
Two accredited land trusts are leading a pioneering collaborative to promote the value of using fire to restore habitats that are critical to declining bird species.
In the Southeast, two accredited land trusts are leading a pioneering Burning for Birds Conservation Collaborative to promote the value of using fire to restore habitats, such as longleaf pine savannas, that are critical to declining bird species.
In 2022, Florida’s Alachua Conservation Trust and Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy partnered with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative to engage private landowners on the use of prescribed burns to benefit species such as the northern bobwhite and Bachman’s sparrow.
The Burning for Birds Conservation Collaborative has since expanded to include three additional land trusts in the region — Aiken Land Conservancy, Georgia Conservancy and Putnam Land Conservancy — in addition to a range of other conservation organizations.
“In the midst of a global pandemic, the Cornell Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative allowed us to facilitate meaningful interactions between our private landowner partners and community organizations,” said Tom Kay, executive director at Alachua Conservation Trust. “Since then, we’ve watched these partnerships expand to include a larger effort to conserve habitat and engage the community on the benefits of prescribed fire for birds and other wildlife.”
Another new component in the project involves students collecting data about fire-dependent southeastern bird species to benefit the greater bird conservation effort, said Tall Timbers’ Holly Guthrie. To share the success of their initiative, the collaborative created an interactive StoryMap featuring videos, maps and photos documenting the project’s three phases, from community engagement to post-burn results.
This story originally appeared in the Winter 2025 issue of Saving Land magazine.
Learn more at the collaborative’s newly launched website: burningforbirds.org.