While many of us think of fire solely as a destructive force, Gifford understands that it is essential to enriching the ecosystem of a pitch pine barren.

Gifford, the conservation director for the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, got his first job at the preserve literally setting fires, controlled burns.

Fire, he explains in this week’s Enterprise podcast, recycles nutrients in a way that benefits rare plants.

“You can think of wild fire almost like instant decomposition,” he said, likening it to what happens in a compost pile — but almost instantly.

“Fire is taking nitrogen in particular, but also phosphorus, calcium, potassium, and other nutrients and releasing them into the soil and making them available for plant uptake,” he said.

Read the full story at https://altamontenterprise.com/05092022/neil-gifford-brings-back-birds-and-butterflies-brink-extinction

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