"…part of the owl's habitat is downed woody material…when we light a fire, using fire as a tool, sometimes we have to rake leaves, pine needles, away from some of these downed logs or woody material so that we do not disturb this habitat…"
Sometimes mitigation can address the issue of endangerment to the endangered species. A good example would be the Mexican spotted owl in their critical habitat. When we use prescribed fire, as part of the owl's habitat is downed woody material, and it has to have certain size and amount of woody material. When we light a fire, using fire as a tool, sometimes we have to rake leaves, pine needles, away from some of these downed logs or woody material so that we do not disturb this habitat that the owl needs. That's what's called mitigation.
As far as fire, sometimes we have to be careful as far as the intensity of the burn. If it burns too hot and closer to, say, a first [poke?] watershed, that sometimes the ashes settles into the stream, and then it carries down into the main stream. I think I'm talking about probably the [spine days?]—you know, the minnow, you know, the fish that's in the Colorado Plateau. These are some of the things that we need to be really careful about, where we can [light] a fire, and the intensity of the burn, too, you know. And there's mitigations in doing that kind of thing.