Prescribed fire is one of the most beneficial management tools and is one of the most misunderstood.
Spring burning gets a really bad rap from those who do not fully understand prairie ecosystems. Even when these benefits are explained, there will always be a certain percentage of folks who will disagree as they have drunk the wrong Kool-Aid served up at some local coffee shop.
The most difficult part for many to understand is the fact that a springtime prescribed fire in most cases will destroy a very small number of ground-nesting birds like waterfowl and pheasants that have already started the nesting process. Depending on how late into the spring you burn, this can be as few as none to maybe a handful of nests.
I always do a drive-around inspection after a burn to see how many nests were affected. I have seen on an 80-acre burn where no nests were observed as being destroyed. The most I have ever seen is about eight in a burn of that size. It forces those hens to re-nest in a different location.
This is why you always try to burn less than 100 percent of any spot. Burning 25-50 percent of a spot is desired. This allows affected hens to move only a short distance to start their re-nesting efforts. Remember that as a percentage, very few nests of the total are actually destroyed by a spring fire. My experience shows me this.
Pre-European settlement wildfires were common. They were started by lightning and in many cases could burn many thousands of acres at a time. It was said that a man on horse back could not outrun a wild fire. Native Indians were the first prescribed fire makers.
They would light fires, and the resulting flush of green grasses would attract large herds of buffalo that these native people relied on to survive. Fire to native grasses is like fertilizing your front yard grass.
The most predominant species for native grasses are called warm season grasses, and they don’t start growing until the soil temperatures reach about 70 degrees. The black ash that results from a fire absorbs the suns rays and the ground heats up much sooner than in a normal year without a fire. This gives these desirable native grasses a growing season that might be as many as 45 days longer than normal.
The greatest threat to native prairies and restored native grass stands today is the human introduction of smooth brohm. This is a cool season grass that was brought here many decades ago. It sprouts early in the spring and gets a good head start on the more desirable warm species grasses that are better for wildlife. By allowing these cool season undesirables to sprout and then knocking them back with fire allows desirable grass species to outcompete their poor-for-wildlife habitat competitors.
If left completely un-managed, native prairies and restored native grass stands could completely convert to cool season undesirables in a period of about 10-15 years. Once these brohm stands get well-established, it can take back-to-back burns for up to five years or cultivation and starting over to re-establish cover suitable for a wide variety of wildlife.
Another reason to utilize prescribed fire is to control invasive trees. This is another area with lots of misunderstandings. Many folks think every single tree is a good tree no matter its variety or location. This is just not the case when you become more knowledgeable about prairie land ecosystems. Trees will die in a fire if they have not grown too large. Cedar trees just about melt in fire and are easy to control using this method. Even trees that ring a wetland – most of the time there are cottonwoods – dramatically reduce the success rates of ground nesting birds due to the fact that mammalian predators use trees for their travel corridors. Almost no successful nests are observed within 100 yards of a tree line.
If any of my readers would like more detailed information about springtime prescribed fire, I will be glad to send you more scientific data that can and does back up my understandings of fire.
I am helping out with a few prescribed fires in Nobles and Rock counties. If you need help finding the right folks in your county to help you manage your grasslands, reach out to me and I will get you connected to the right folks to help you make your grasslands the most productive they can be.
Scott Rall, Worthington, is a habitat conservationist, avid hunting and fishing enthusiast and is president of Nobles County Pheasants Forever. He can be reached at scottarall@gmail.com. or on Twitter @habitat champion.