Ecological, Economic, and Social Dimensions of Using Summer Fire to Restore Ecosystems in the Southern Plains of the US

The Southern Plains, which stretch from northern Oklahoma through Texas into Mexico, represent an important component of the regional economy in the southern USA. Maintaining or restoring ecosystem health and resilience is a critical social imperative to ensure the future supply of the ecosystem services they supply, which are critical for the future well-being for human societies in the region. However, fire suppression, overgrazing, ineffective brush control, and periodic drought have led to continuing conversion of open grasslands and savannas to woodlands dominated by honey mesquite and juniper species. A key issue for cost-effectively restoring the health of the Southern Plains ecosystems is the reintroduction of periodic fires, including occasional hot summer burns. Despite evidence of the ecological benefits resulting from summer fires, their use is not endorsed by NRCS and others under common summertime environmental conditions. Reintroducing summer fires is also complicated by the fact that landscape-level ecological changes have interconnected environmental and human dimensions. The purpose of this project is to assess the feasibility of restoring rangeland health in the Southern Plains using periodic summer fires. The project will integrate ecological, economic, and social parameters in this assessment, which will result in recommendations on potential policy/practice changes to producers, NRCS, and other stakeholders