Prescribed Fire in the Nelchina Basin: A Case Study for Managing Moose
Population
Abstract
The Nelchina Basin, located west of Glenallen, AK provides important
moose (Alces alces) habitat throughout the year. However, previous
research in this area has shown that the moose populations appear to be
nutritionally limited by the available forage. The Nelchina Basin was
deemed an intensive management unit to increase moose populations
through predator control efforts and prescribed fires to increase the
amount of available forage, including the 2004 Alphabet Hills fire. We
quantified the available digestible energy (DE) and digestible protein
(DP) during the summer of 2018 and 2019, as well as the winter in
between, and availability of forages for moose within the burn perimeter
and the adjacent unburned forest during the summer of 2019. We found
that total canopy cover of the primary forage species was lower in the
burned areas than in the adjacent unburned forest habitats. DP
concentration was not significantly different between forested and
burned sites, and DE and DP content varied across the summer and winter
sampling season. We also found a significant difference in DE and DP
across the two sampling years. Although others have shown a positive
effect of wildfire for herbivore populations, we found that some areas,
including the Alphabet Hills area, may not be suitably adapted to
benefit from the quick release of nutrients after fire and may not
allocate more resources to biomass as previously expected. This project
highlights the importance of research that quantifies both the
availability of and the quantity of available food resources for
herbivores.