Burn Season
If the photo above gave you heart palpitations: never fear. It’s burn season (and that’s a good thing!).
Hoping you were outside this weekend for the official start of spring, I imagine you saw and heard Sandhill Cranes, Red-winged Blackbirds, robins, cardinals, Mourning Doves, Wood Ducks, and many others. You probably heard frogs for the first time this year. You probably smelled something too, smoke, most of which came from the controlled burns that are starting on the prairies and savannas owned by the public, conservation groups, and individuals. The next 4-6 weeks are the springtime burning season in southern Wisconsin.
Burning is key for many reasons to the health of prairies and savannas. These systems are fire dependent. Fire renew fertility, spark the reproductive cycle of some plants, suppress woody vegetation, and control some invasive species. No fire = no prairies, no savannas.
A quick look at Helga’s Prairie prescribed burn at Madison Audubon’s Faville Grove Sanctuary on March 19, 2021. Video by Roger Packard
For Madison Audubon and many other conservation organizations, our field staff and dozens of volunteers will spend hundreds of hours burning over these next weeks. With the multiple and complex changes in people and habitat over the last 300-400 years in the upper Midwest, fires are usually not a natural phenomenon nor can they occur as the Indigenous people used them. Just about all are man-made and have to be carefully planned and implemented; all are very circumscribed.
Madison Audubon offers volunteers an opportunity to help on fires. Just about all the folks who volunteer find the experience fascinating and rewarding. Certainly they know they are helping with a critical conservation activity. A fire accelerating as planned and covering the target area is spectacular. The different responses are interesting too. On my first fire, a small fire tornado or whirlwind broke out as the fire crested a hill. A fellow volunteer exclaimed, "Wow! Isn't this great?!" I thought, "You are crazy. This is terrifying." Maybe both of us were right.
Running a prescribed burn is no small feat and takes lots of detailed work. This prescribed burn at Goose Pond Sanctuary in 2019 went off without a hitch, thanks to all of the volunteers who helped out. Madison Audubon photo
If you follow the fire leader's directions carefully, you will be safe and helpful. Fire impresses us viscerally so that I have never seen a volunteer not take his or her directions and responsibilities most seriously. Every once in a while fire reminds you that you had better take heed. While the fire leader is meticulous in understanding and planning for conditions such as soil and plant dryness, humidity, and, as you'd anticipate, wind, nature enjoys its unpredictability.
That’s me, following orders at a Goose Pond Sanctuary burn in 2019! Madison Audubon photo
Again, on that first day of burning, I was on a line when, for 30-45 seconds, the wind shifted 180 degrees. As in: NOW, COMING AT ME. Probably nothing in the world responds more quickly to wind than fire. I was safe and, because I had listened to the leader and stayed aware of my surroundings, I knew where to go to stay safe. I was also reminded that fire always requires many watchful eyes.
Fire has another interesting dimension—the range of research, judgment, and opinion it generates in conservationists. I just show up at fires and do what I'm told but listening to our Madison Audubon staff and other experts is pretty interesting. While everyone agrees on the essential function of fire, when, where, and how to burn create lots of discussion and, for me at least, a surprising amount of very polite, carefully stated disagreement. I never worry about the value of the fire I'm helping on but the discussions again remind me that we don't have all the answers on how to manage all our resources.
One interesting consideration is what to do about those magnificent Bald Eagles? As you may know, we are fully into Bald Eagle nesting season, with most of southern Wisconsin’s nests containing eggs or chicks at this point in the year. Prescribed burns with the best intentions can have devastating effects on active nests. This happened a couple of years ago at site in southern Wisconsin, causing the Bald Eagle nest to fail and prompting Madison Audubon’s Bald Eagle Nest Watch team to create a document with guidelines on when and how to burn around eagle nests. You can find that here — and feel free to share widely.
The prescribed burn shown here did not account for the active Bald Eagle nest (burn line shown in red) and caused the pair to abandon the nest. After the nest failed, drone footage was used to document 1 egg in the nest (in the purple circle). Drones should not be used during active nesting.
Keep an eye out for fire-related volunteer opportunities at Madison Audubon and other conservation groups (The Prairie Enthusiasts are extremely diligent and expert in their fire program). We'll be careful with regard to COVID and fire safety and you will have a unique, worthwhile, and helpful experience. By the way, you might show up at a fire and find yourself among plenty of volunteers. At the end of the day, you might think: "I didn't have that much to do, It was boring at times (except when the fire really took off—that was cool. Maybe they didn't really need me."
A wetland prescribed burn at Faville Grove Sanctuary. Photo by Drew Harry / Madison Audubon
With all due respect, WRONG. The best fire is a boring fire with plenty of folks to help. I have been on a couple of fires on private lands where I had the uneasy feeling that we did not have quite enough helpers or adequate equipment. The fires turned out okay, but more folks is definitely better when it comes to fire.
Take care,
Topf Wells, Madison Audubon board member and advocacy committee chair
Cover photo by Roger Packard
