Managing Invasive Species with Fire

Non native spices can cause stressful conditions to native species in an environment. There are many ways to remove invasive species from an ecosystem. One technique that works well in some situations is prescribed burns. This can be effective when native plants are resilient to fire and non native are not.

Although fire management works well in some situations it is not always the best way to rid invasive species depending on the fire regimes you may have to continue to set prescribed burns every several years.

Other methods such as pulling non-native species and using chemicals and herbicides work better in some ecosystems with invasive species such as cheatgrass actually thrive after burns. In cases like this fire is not a good option when it comes to ways of managing invasive species.

When using fire as a management against non-native and invasive species it is important to make sure you know what effects fire will have on the ecosystem it can be a very effective tool yet it also can cause more problems then you had to begin with.