Ecology Fire and Conservation Symposium: Fire Ecology and Avian Conservation Conveners: Frances C. James and John W. Fitzpatrick 489 Overview of Fire Ecology and Avian Conservation Frances C. James and Charles A. Hess Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2043, U.S.A. The purpose of this symposium is to discuss the role of fire in natural ecological systems, the potential role of prescribed fire in the management of birds in such systems, and the practical and theoretical implications of this topic for conservation biology. Natural fire regimes vary with the rate of accumulation of flammable dead vegetation, the frequency of climatic condi- tions suitable for fire, and the frequency of thunderstorms with lightning. In most habitats, the disturbance of a fire resets a general sequence of ecological succession to which species of birds respond individualistically. Because fires are patchy in their intensity, the dispersal mechanisms of birds and other organisms usually permit them to survive in suitable patches. Natural fires are likely every few years in many prairie and scrub systems and every few hun- dred years in Douglas fir forests of the Pacific Northwest. Some outstanding examples of birds' responses to fire in the boreal forests of North America are those of the Black-backed Three- toed Woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) and the Olive-sided Flycatcher (Nutallornis borealis), which colonize recently burned sites, and the Mourning Warbler (Oporornispbiladelpbia), which col- onizes burned areas with many new root sprouts from deciduous trees. Clearcutting of timber can produce appropriate habitat for some early successional species, but the case of the Kirtland's Warbler (Dendroica kirtlandii) in Michigan shows that timber management alone may not always be sufficient. It is ironic that the longleaf pine-wiregrass plant association in the southeastern United States is referred to in ecology textbooks as a subterminal stage in ecological succession. Given its natural fire regime, it may be the forest most highly adapted to permanence. This association, which in presettlement times covered more than 90 million acres of the coastal plain from North Carolina to Texas, had lighming-set ground fires every few years. Longleaf pine seeds germinate in freshly burned openings, and the seedlings become fire resistant within two or three years, so the habitat contains regenerating patches of pines along with patches of all other ages of trees up to 400 years old. The Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis) evolved in this system and survives today only where the savanna nature of the habitat is preserved along with relict living trees in which it excavates cavities for roosting and nesting. The only stable populations of this endangered species are in places that are managed to mimic the natural fire regime (sometimes mechanically) and to provide (sometimes artificial) cavities. Even so, timber-management policies in the U. S. D. A. Forest Service now favor prescribed burning for fuel reduction and conservation, a policy of critical importance to the survival of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Our studies in the Apalachicola National Forest in northern Florida suggest that a fire regime of prescribed burning every three to five years in Red-cockaded Woodpecker foraging habitat benefits the population, even at the level of the individual territory.