Ecosystems throughout North America evolved with wildfire. Today, prescribed fire is an important tool for managing habitat by maintaining open, early-seral landscapes. Fire can greatly improve the value of habitat for insects and other invertebrates, often increasing species abundance and diversity, however, fire (both natural and prescribed) in the wrong place, at the wrong scale, or at the wrong time can have the opposite effect—damaging native plant and invertebrate communities which may take decades to fully recover.
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