Wildfires pose little risk to critters

From Staff Reports

The effects of a massive wildfire in the Cohutta Wilderness on wildlife may not be as severe as some might imagine, according to Chuck Waters, of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

The Rough Ridge fire blazed through 24,765 acres as of Friday, according to a Georgia Forestry Commission press release. But, Waters, supervisor of the regional DNR Game Management office, said he feels certain the fire has caused some movement but has not tremendously afflicted deers and bears.

If the fires have any impact on denning locations for the bear population across the Cohutta Wilderness, he doesn’t think it will be noticeable.

“Some of the older dead (and) den trees might burn up but it will probably create some more. They will find a place, they’re pretty adaptable,” Waters said. “That’s a big fire but on the landscape its not like a wall (of fire) that’s going to move a lot of the game.”

Adam Hammond, a wildlife biologist and bear specialist with the DNR’s Armuchee office, said he believes most of the wildlife have been able to get away from the fires creeping up and down the mountainsides.

Hammond said the bear dens he has found during research projects in the Cohutta have been ground dens.

“Those would be brush piles, or holes dug in the ground,” Hammond said. “Those probably will not be greatly impacted.”

Waters said there is no harvest data for deer or bears that indicate any abnormal movement of the wildlife trying to escape the flames.

“It’s probably caused some localized changes in movement,” Waters said. “I really think that over the long term it’s going to be positive.”

The fires will reduce the risk of future wildfires for several years, Waters added.

“It’s going to create some early successional habitats (heavily vegetated areas) that a lot of critters need,” he said. “Bears need blackberries and stuff like that in the summer and there are really none there to speak of.”

Early successional habitats are areas with vigorously growing grasses, forbs, shrubs and trees, which provide excellent food and cover for wildlife.

Hammond said the new growth that will be stimulated in would provide an even better habitat for cover for newborn deer and other species, as well as improving the food supply.

If some trees are lost and holes are punched through the tree can- opy, it would ultimately increase the biological diversity across the region, Waters explained.

“The plants will respond this next spring,” he continued. “We had a bumper (large) crop of acorns this year, so we’ve got a nice seed bed for the acorns to germinate on.

“Burning up the leaf litter can release nutrients back to the soil, so it can be really good for the soil.”

Berry College Dana Professor of Biology Martin Cipollini said that for much of the 20th century the emphasis was on suppression of fires. He recently found letters in the Berry archive indicating Martha Berry was president of the American Forestry Association in 1920. A note on the association’s letterhead reads, “Our forests shall not burn.”

“It was just a matter of time before we had a fire of this magnitude,’ Cipollini said.

Due to the nature and area of the wildfire, Cipollini feels more devastation may come.

“I understand the flame height has been peaking out at about four feet, but if it’s going through areas that haven’t been burned for many years, thick with forest debris, it’s probably burning hotter than it would have naturally burned and that may cause more damage,” Cipollini said.