Prescribed Fire Restores the Balance of Nature

Fire is a naturally-occurring phenomenon which has helped maintain ecological communities throughout North America for thousands of years. Without periodic fires, landscapes such as the tallgrass prairies of the Midwest would in many places be lost to succession, as competing plants displace the fire-adapted prairie species along with the diversity of wildlife that coexist with them.

Historically, fire-influenced communities were maintained by some combination of fire, grazing and soil disturbance. Lightning has always been a natural ignition source of fire and man's use of fire helped intensify this effect in many ecosystems, particularly in grasslands.

Across North America, Native Americans used fire to achieve a variety of results. They used it to drive and enclose game to make hunting easier, to drive away reptiles and insects, to increase the supply of grass, seeds and berries, and to facilitate travel and improve visibility by keeping down the weeds and thickets. Fire was also used both offensively and defensively in warfare. European settlers used fire to clear land for farming and home sites.

Since the early 1900s, the practice of suppressing all forest and rangeland fires, along with an agricultural trend away from grazing and burning, has allowed woody succession to replace grassland ecosystems with shrub and forest communities. Research, however, shows that fire plays a vital role in maintaining the health and diversity of these ecosystems. As a result, the use of prescribed fire (the application of fire under a predetermined set of conditions) is being reintroduced by land managers into grasslands and other natural communities as an important ecological management tool.

Fire's Role in Ohio

In Ohio, fire is a natural force in many plant communities and the use of prescribed fire plays a crucial role in restoring and maintaining biodiversity. Fire promotes nutrient recycling by reducing litter and accumulated fuels which lessens the likelihood and severity of uncontrolled and damaging wildfires. Fire hastens seed germination, in part, by lengthening the growing season by removing plant litter and exposing the darkened soil surface to earlier warming by the sun. Fire is also used as a tool in controlling non-native plant species and the spread of woody plants into prairies and savannas.

Some rare and endangered animal species are dependent upon fire for maintaining their habitat. Animals that depend on the open character of grasslands for hunting and nesting (short-eared owls, northern harriers, grasshopper sparrows), for food (voles), or for association with particular species (Karner blue butterfly with wild lupine), may benefit most from burning, as it promotes the habitat in which these animals survive.

Fire Management & Research Program

Because fire is such an important natural process and helps achieve defined ecological management goals, The Nature Conservancy has developed a Fire Management & Research Program headquartered at Tall Timbers esearch Station in Tallahassee, Florida. The program provides training for Conservancy staff and land managers from other agencies in the use of prescribed fire to restore and maintain healthy ecosystems through fire management workshops. The Fire Management and Research Program maintains a database with background information on each preserve or tract where The Nature Conservancy has an active burn program. This information is essential for tracking, planning, and training purposes and helps the Conservancy gain an understanding of the role of fire in the natural ecosystems being managed.

Prescribed burning is both a science and an art requiring an understanding of the interactions between weather, fire behavior, plant fuel types, and plant ecology. Fire managers are experienced professionals who strive to understand the fire-adapted ecosystem and its response to prescribed fire. The frequency and seasonality of prescribed burns are timed to maximize the benefits to fire-adapted species and minimize disturbance to the other native elements of the community. Fire managers make sure that management objectives are reached safely and effectively. "Prescribed burning deals with a variety of factors diverse topography, different types of vegetation and unpredictable weather. All conditions must be right to safely execute a planned burn," states Dave Minney, Fire Manager for the Ohio Chapter. "Training and experience are essential for burn crew members."

Prescribed burns for ecological management usually fall into one of two categories: a) Ecosystem/habitat recovery burn where the goal is to recreate, restore, or enhance ecosystem or habitat qualities that have been disrupted, degraded, or otherwise altered by past land use activities or fire exclusion; b) Ecosystem/habitat maintenance burn where the goal is to maintain existing conditions within their normal range of variability. Monitoring is an ongoing process used to gauge the attainment of management goals and to assess the need for research. 

Although gaps still exist in the understanding of fire ecology, it continues to gain acceptance as an important resource management tool. Thanks to The Nature Conservancy's Fire Initiative and cooperative sharing of resources and expertise with federal, state and local partners, the return of fire is being recognized as a critical element in the life cycle of our landscapes.