Bees in the woods: Using prescribed fire to enhance pollinator habitat (in English)

(relaxed guitar music)

- So here at the High Desert Museum,

one of the most important tools we can use

to create a healthy forest
that's good for pollinators

is prescribed burning.

The forest you see behind us right now

was burned about two years ago

and some of the benefits
of prescribed burning

are to reduce some of the
woody shrubs or bunch grasses

that can really grow up in the understory.

Our forests naturally are less dense here.

There's less trees per acre

and so that's something we're trying

to get back to by using prescribed burns.

- These forests are actually
fire adapted ecosystems.

For example, this
Ponderosa forest behind me,

would've received a fire
at a return interval

about five to 25 years, historically.

So, utilizing tools such as
thinning and prescribed fire,

can help mimic what fire
would've done naturally

in a more historical context.

Thinning is often used in
conjunction with prescribed fire

with thinning treatments
reducing stand density,

as well as reducing fuel loads

and then prescribed fire then
further reduces fuel loads

as well as reduces understory competition

and opens mineral soil

for species that pollinators prefer,

such as flowering shrub species

and flowering herbaceous species

as well as provides
opportunity for ground nesters.

- After many years of using two tools,

both thinning and prescribed burns,

in our Ponderosa pine forests

we have a really nice mixture

and variation of both open areas,

which you can see around us right now,

what we're standing in,

but also some slightly denser stands.

Now, these open areas are getting

more water and more sunlight,

which are encouraging the growth

of more herbaceous species

and some of our flowering shrubs.

So, in the months and years
after a prescribed burn

we see a lot of shrubs
and flowering plants

moving back into the burned area

that are great for pollinators.

We'll also get a lot of
flowering herbaceous plants

growing after a prescribed burn

and those can include yarrow,

sulphur buckwheat and fireweed.

(relaxed guitar music)