An evaluation of vegetation response and forage availability for Odocoileus virginianus to fire seasonality in pine ecosystems in the southeastern United States

I evaluated the response of vegetation composition and structure, forage availability, and nutritional carrying capacity (NCC) for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in four seasons of burning nine pine stands in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina, 2020–2023. I used data that we collected during the growing seasons of those four years to examine changes in composition, structure, and selected white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) forage to dormant season (January–March), early growing-season (April–May), mid-growing-season (June–July), and late growing-season (September–October) prescribed fire after two treatment iterations. I observed significant changes in the plant community and structure. Fire treatments moved the composition of the understory to more herbaceous species, which increased species diversity indices and resulted in a more open structure compared to the unburned Control stands. Quality of selected deer forages increased after two iterations of fire treatments, where all burned units had a greater nutritional carrying capacity compared to unburned Control units. My results highlight the importance of burning during all seasons of the year to enable more burn opportunities and grater flexibility in managing for white-tailed deer as well as other wildlife species.