Category: Land Management

Spring Burn in Winneshiek County

This spring I had the chance to work alongside Winneshiek County Conservation and Winneshiek County Roadside Management as they conducted prescribed burns on some of the planted and remnant prairies in the county. As this April burn at Neste Valley wrapped up, I took a moment to capture some aerial footage.

The Outliers in the Woods: Buckthorn, Honeysuckle, Multiflora Rose

After an October frost or two, the leaves on many of our woodland plants have changed color or fallen, and it’s a great time of year to scavenge the woods for the color green. In a healthy Iowa woodland, the conspicuous green foilage in October and November often belongs to the outliers: non-native, invasive shrubs and plants such as European Buckthorn, Garlic Mustard, Asiatic Bush Honeysuckle, Multiflora Rose, or Reed Canary Grass.

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A prairie wildflower walk

Great Blue Lobelia

A video walkthrough of a four year old prairie restoration on Aug 26, 2018. Prairie was planted Nov 2014.

Middle Bear Bluffs Farm Prairie Burn

Protecting the mowed firebreak with backpack sprayers.
  • Going over the plan with the burn crew.
  • Protective, non-flammable clothing, gloves, boots, and head and eye covering is a must.
  • The backing fire moves uphill towards the smoke of the headfire in the background.
  • Ensuring that any fire which attempts to creep back across the mowed firebreak is put out with backpack or ATV sprayers.
  • Using a propane torch to ignite the prairie. A drip torch or garden rake is often a more effective and safer means for ignition.
  • Preparing the Drip Torch
  • Allowing the fire to back under the power lines, preventing any chance of arcing through the thick smoke of a head fire.
  • This prescribed burn unit was 4.3 acres. 
  • Again, watching the backfire to prevent any fire from jumping across the mowed firebreak.. We pre-wet the mowed firebreak with the ATV sprayer, both as an extra precaution and as a means to greatly reduce the work involved close to the heat. 
  • First we lit a backfire, then a flank fire on the side, and finally the head fire.
  • The black after a successful burn.
  • One safe area to be is the already burned area, sometimes called “the black”.
  • Carl and Brad taking a fun photo after the morning’s project. The tractor carries a 85 gallon fire pump and other equipment — serving as another tool in the prescribed fire toolbox.
  • Keeping an eye on things and using radios for good communication was key.
  • NOAA Weather Point Forecast. We burned from around 9am-noon. Note the dropping relative humidity. By afternoon, conditions were extremely dangerous (~ 25% R.H.) For this reason, an evening burn is often preferred as R.H. begins to climb back up and wind tends to die down. 
  • NOAA Weather Point Forecast cont… The forecast provides information that is particularly helpful for a prescribed burn. A weather instrument can then be used to measure and compare on-site conditions with the forecast.
  • Job well done!

Pleasant Valley Prescribed Burn Lyceum

Thanks to everyone for your interest in this Pleasant Valley Lyceum and special thanks to Craig, Daryl, Steve, and Gary for taking part.

The event went quite well ~ first we compared notes on prairie reconstruction methods, prescribed burn preparation and effects, and the benefits of prairie habitat to all critters. Then we went over equipment and tools, getting to try out fire brooms, swatters, and backpack pumps. Finally we lit the test fire and prairie grass.

The video shows the sequence of a slow backing burn into the wind, then the flank fires, and finally the head fire that burns rapidly with the wind. At the end you’ll catch a glimpse of two wild turkey’s back out displaying in the open field the next day.

The burn went smoothly, followed our plan, and was effective at setting back some of the cool-season brome grass.

Selected Guides to Prescribed Burning and Prairie Reconstruction

Pre-Burn Photos

I’ve included a few annotated photos of the 2.5 acre section we will burn. This section is primarily two “warm-season grasses”: Big Bluestem and Switchgrass. These two native grasses benefit from fire, whereas the non-native, “cool-season grasses” we hope to suppress do not.

Using a National Weather Service Point Forecast

If you plan to conduct your own prescribed burn and haven’t used the National Weather Service’s Point forecast’s before, I’ve found these forecasts to be a useful tool in planning ahead. It provides you with six days of hourly temperature, humidity, wind speed, direction, etc. for any point on the map.

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Suggestions on What to Wear/Bring if you plan to participate in the prescribed burn

    • Clothes should be made from natural fibers such as cotton or wool as these fibers do not combust readily. Synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester will burn or melt.
    • Long pants and long-sleeved shirts provide protection from embers and radiant heat.
    • Hat or cap to cover your hair
    • Glasses/Sunglasses
    • Leather boots are the best footwear option
    • Leather Gloves
    • Water bottle

Post-Burn Photos

Prescribed Fire for Reducing Tick- Associated Disease Risk

Ultimately, we found that over the long-term, prescribed fires significantly reduced tick populations regardless of burn interval, host abundance, vegetation, or climate, with a 98% reduction in ticks observed in sites that were managed with any type of burning. Interestingly, we did not observe the recovery of tick populations after burns that previous studies reported. Instead, ticks simply were not present (or were present at very low numbers) in these sites for the duration of our study.

From SCWDS BRIEFS, October 2015, Vol. 31, No. 3 http://vet.uga.edu/population_health_files/2015_OCT_SCWDS_Briefs.pdf
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