What is prescribed burning and why is it beneficial and essential?

Prescribed fire is the planned application of fire to the land. It is used as a management tool to make healthy habitats and is executed by professionals under specific weather conditions. Prescribed fire is often used to mimic the low-intensity fire that would have naturally occurred on the landscape, typically by indigenous Native Americans for safety, farming, hunting, and other reasons.

As prescribed burns are a part of the natural history of the Midwest, native plants are adapted to fire. Some benefits of prescribed fire:

• Setting-back non-native and undesirable native woody growth. Without periodic fire, grassland and savanna ecosystems will quickly be overrun by shrubs and trees and woodlands with invasive species such as buckthorn, honeysuckle, and oriental bittersweet!
• Stimulating the germination of many types of native seed.
• Removing the annual duff created by plants during the growing season. This simple act allows native plant species to receive maximum amounts of sunlight that would otherwise be shaded out.
• Extending the growing season up to four weeks. The blackened, nutrient rich warmed soil that results from a prescription burn encourages increased growth of native grasses and forbs.

In remnant habitats, it is amazing to see what conservative plant species appear for the first time with no previous native plant introduction! No other restoration technique comes close to the impact that this formally naturally occurring phenomenon has on restoring ecosystems.

Conducted by trained personnel, prescribed burning is a cost-effective tool which should be considered in the management and restoration of a natural area. W2W’s professionally trained wildland fire crew safely implement prescribed burns in addition to offering the following services.

• Preparation of a detailed burn plan.
• Obtaining an open burning permit from the Illinois EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) or variance from the local fire authority.
• Distributing and/or mailing prescribed burn notifications to adjacent residences and landowners.