Restoring Fire’s Role in Ecosystem Health: A Prescribed Fire Case Study in Barrens and Biodiversity

University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Prescribed fire for Forest Management Webinar Series

Wednesday, July 8, 2026 - 10am PT/1pm ET

Presenter: Neil Gifford, Conservation Director, Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, Albany, NY

Fire is the heartbeat of the pyrogenic forest ecosystems, but attempting to restore ecosystem dynamics and endangered wildlife habitat by simply applying what we know of post-colonial fire regimes can be logistically challenging and ecologically ineffective. This is especially true for those of us managing systems, like inland pine barrens, for which there are not any fully “functional” reference communities left to guide our work. The Albany Pine Bush Preserve (APBP) contains one of the best remaining examples of an inland pitch pine-scrub oak barrens (PPSOB) and habitat for 114 rare (S1-S3) wildlife, including >70 of NY State’s 366 wildlife species of greatest conservation need and the federally endangered Karner blue (Plebejus samuelis). Since 1991 managers have employed strategies (mechanical, chemical, pyric) to restore fire’s fundamental role in this landscape. Limited ecological success and extreme fire behavior presented significant early challenges and resulted in a significant paradigm shift in our understanding of ecosystem dynamics. It also revealed important clues about restoration and maintenance fire regimes.  Applying a dual front approach while simultaneously tracking rare wildlife populations has helped define and monitor ecosystem health. It has also resulted in increased distribution and abundance of rare wildlife – including the complete recovery of the local Karner meta-population and the return of the eastern whip-poor-will – while reducing wildfire risk and improving resilience and logistics in a congested and complicated wildland urban interface at the NYS Capital.

Neil Gifford is the Conservation Director for the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, a community representative with the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange, and member of the NYS Prescribed Fire Council with 29 years of fire ecology and Rx fire experience. He earned associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees in Ecology and Environmental Science from Paul Smith’s College, and Plattsburgh State University, with an emphasis on fire ecology and field ornithology.