FIRE EFFECTS AND USE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Tamiasciurus hudsonicus | Red Squirrel 



DIRECT FIRE EFFECTS ON ANIMALS : 
Most red squirrels probably escape most fires.  In Minnesota oak savanna
one red squirrel was found dead after a prescribed April fire that
consumed all litter, killed most shrubs and young trees, and killed a
few large trees [43].


HABITAT RELATED FIRE EFFECTS : 
Kirkpatrick and Mosby [20] suggested that prescribed fire in southern
pine-hardwood sapling and older stages is unlikely to affect resident
tree squirrels.  This may apply to red squirrels, since important
habitat includes mature trees unlikely to be adversely affected by
low-severity fire.  Fire severe enough to cause basal fire wounds may
increase cavities available for food caches.  Basal fire wounds are
unlikely to increase cavities useful as nests for red squirrels [20].

In Yellowstone National Park lodgepole pine stands monitored for
presence of birds and mammals during postfire succession, red squirrels
were only present in stands with closed canopies [42].  In north-central
Colorado red squirrels were not present on 8-year-old burned areas but
were present in adjacent unburned lodgepole pine stands [33].

The maintenance of many mature coniferous forest types is often
dependent on fire.  Ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, lodgepole pine,
whitebark pine, and spruces are either dependent on stand-replacing
fires for regeneration or on low-severity fires for maintenance.  Even
though severe fire is immediately destructive of red squirrel habitat,
the long-term maintenance of most coniferous forests is dependent on
fire [57].


FIRE USE : 
NO-ENTRY


REFERENCES : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Wildlife Species: Tamiasciurus hudsonicus | Red Squirrel