What Birds Reveal About Fire, Forests, and Resilience

Scientific research shows that prescribed fire, managed wildfire, and carefully designed thinning can help restore forest resilience in appropriate settings. But forest restoration and wildfire mitigation aren't interchangeable.

 Restoration focuses on ecological health, including habitat, soils, and regeneration, while mitigation primarily reduces risks to communities and infrastructure. Together, these approaches can support healthier forests while helping protect nearby communities from destructive fires.

For birds, that distinction matters.

A 2020 Colorado Front Range study found that forest restoration treatments can benefit bird communities, although individual species respond differently. Some birds favor more open conditions, while others depend on mature forests, shrubs, or standing dead trees.

Audubon Rockies and Weminuche Audubon Society have monitored bird responses to dry mixed conifer forest treatments near Pagosa Springs for eight years. Their monitoring helps document how birds respond to forest treatments that create openings and encourage understory vegetation, providing habitat and food resources during the breeding season. This monitoring also helps inform forest management with the San Juan National Forest.

Research following the 2018 416 Fire near Durango offers another important perspective. Five years after the fire, researchers found similar overall bird species richness across burn conditions, but differences in which species were present. Standing dead trees in heavily burned areas provided valuable nesting and foraging habitat.

The lesson? Fire has ecological benefits, even as severe wildfires can pose serious risks. Healthy bird communities depend on a mosaic of habitat types and natural processes—not simply the number of trees on the landscape. Managing these landscapes thoughtfully can also help safeguard homes, support outdoor recreation, and protect the natural places Coloradans value.

When forests burn, rivers feel it

Colorado's mountain forests collect the snow that feeds our rivers, supports agriculture and communities, and sustains wetlands and riparian habitats essential to birds.

Severe wildfire can disrupt those connections. When intense rainfall follows a fire, ash, sediment, and debris can wash into streams and reservoirs, affecting water quality, aquatic ecosystems, and drinking-water infrastructure. Changes to vegetation and soils can also alter runoff and increase flooding.

A 2023 study in Science Advances highlights how wildfire risks cascade through water quality, water quantity, and infrastructure, sometimes for years after a fire.

Forest management may also influence snowpack. A recent University of Washington and The Nature Conservancy study found that carefully designed thinning increased snow storage by approximately 30% on north-facing slopes and 16% on south-facing slopes in Washington's eastern Cascades. While results vary by landscape and greater snow storage doesn't necessarily translate into increased streamflow, the findings underscore the importance of considering forest management within larger watershed systems.

For Audubon, forest health and watershed health are inseparable. How we manage forests affects the rivers, wetlands, and floodplains downstream that sustain wildlife like birds while providing clean water, recreational opportunities, and other essential benefits for communities.

Investing in resilience before disaster strikes

Research increasingly demonstrates the potential benefits of proactive wildfire management.

A 2026 study published in Science examined 285 wildfires across 11 western states. Researchers estimated that fuel treatments helped avoid approximately $2.8 billion in damages, including property losses and impacts associated with carbon emissions and smoke. The study estimated $3.73 in benefits for every dollar invested.

These are modeled benefits, not guaranteed outcomes for individual projects. But they reinforce the value of investing in carefully designed, science-based approaches before severe wildfire occurs.

Additional Resources

The following resources offer additional information on forest management, wildfire resilience, water resources, and habitat for wildlife like birds. 

Colorado Bird Research