GQ: Are critters that live in controlled burn areas protected in any way?

Rating:

3.0 (1 vote)

Tonight's Good Question came during the controlled burn last month at Montana de Oro State Park.

Ted from the Lazy 2 T ranch wants to know: Are the critters that live in the burn areas protected in any way?

Cal-Fire, State Parks and Fish and Game do an extensive environmental study before any burn, sending biologists, geologists, even archaeologists into the field up to a year before a burn.

They rate possible effects on everything from water quality and soils to plants and animals. The burn can't go forward if it would cause a what they call a "significant effect" in any environmental category. Burns are not allowed where threatened or endangered species live. The pre-burn checklist for Montana de Oro was 70 pages long and answered 89 specific questions.

For critters like deer, squirrels and birds that are not threatened or endangered species, Cal-Fire makes sure to avoid scheduling a burn during nesting seasons or when the animals give birth.

Cal-Fire says most of those animals instinctively do well at getting away from any fire that starts.

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