88°F
sponsored by:
FIND IT WITH OUR NEW DIRECTORY!
Click to activate search window!
Local    Subscribe to our feeds    Add to My Yahoo!
Advertisement

Advertising Info

Article Options

Comments (8 comment(s))  |  Email this story
Print this story  |  Discuss  |  Big Text  |  Normal Text
Current Rating:
0
   Number of Votes:
0
Rate:  |  |  | 
Save and Share  add to yahoo add delicious add to digg add to facebook add to reddit add to newsvine  
   How do I share?
Shawnee plans prescribed burning
By Codell Rodriguez, The Southern
Monday, December 31, 2007 7:20 PM CST
Someone needs to tell Smokey Bear that not all forest fires are a bad thing.

Every year the Shawnee National Forest partakes in prescribed burning to make way for flora and wildlife to flourish and to prevent further forest fires.

Chris Peterson, forest fire management officer, said staff hopes to start burning sometime in February. They usually burn in the spring and fall when most animals are dormant. Peterson said people are usually confused by the practice.

A common reaction is for people to ask, "Why are you lighting fires? Fires are bad," Peterson said.

Forest Supervisor Alan Nicholas said the process has a positive impact on the forest.

"The basis, by and large, is that it's a restorative type of action," Nicholas said.

Fire removes large amounts of brush that would normally hinder wildlife. It's also used to prepare sites for tree planting and to reduce hazardous fuel buildup under natural stands. Peterson said some trees are burned to make way for others.

"We predominantly set back maples and beeches to try and maintain oaks and hickories, because that's probably what was like back in the day," Peterson said.

In addition to oak and hickory trees being more native to the area, he said their acorns and nuts provide more food for local wildlife, making them much more valuable to the balance of the ecosystem.

Nicholas said helping endangered species of plants has been "one of the better successes" of the process. Mead's Milkweed, which is listed as a federally threatened species on the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board's Web site, has doubled in population since prescribed burning has been used.

The process of prescribed burning is more than just walking into the middle of the forest and throwing a lit match into the brush.

Peterson said each instance of prescribed burning includes more than 40 pages of information detailing the area that will be burned including safety precautions.

The precautions include a detailed layout of the area, thorough weather checks, alerting local fire departments and having about 20 fire personnel.

They also initiate a test fire first to determine the burn pattern so they can have a better idea of what will happen during the real thing.

Peterson said prescribed burning is fairly new to the Shawnee, but is a common practice, including at Coronado National Forest in Tucson, Ariz., where he used to work. But while it is new at Shawnee, he said the process has been around for some time.

"Prescribed burning is a good thing," Peterson said. "It's something that's been done back to Native American days."

codell.rodriguez@thesouthern.com

351-5804

Add Your Own Comments

No account? Register here!

Terms & Conditions

If you already have, sign in below:
*Member ID:
*Password:
  Forgot Your Password?
 

 

Bell Smith wrote on Aug 17, 2008 7:35 PM:

" Yes, "For What its worth!," based upon the style and lack of substance in your post, your college education was a waste. You are indeed entitled to your own opinion; but you are not entitled to your own facts. A thorough review of the literature shows that there is not suffiencient evidence to support the conclusion that burning is necessary or beneficial in the Central Hardwoods forests. "

Report Abuse

For What its worth! wrote on Jan 10, 2008 12:50 AM:

" wow! it amazes me that we have so many experts on fire ecology in southern illinois-get a clue and learn your facts before you think for one minute fire wasnt a part of this ecosystem- apparently my four years of college at a forestry university lied to me! My parents should demand a refund, from the state university i attended, not the federal government cause i dont recall a federal person being one of my instructors!
you have your right to an opinion but i would guess the people you defame in your posts are educated and experienced and are truly trying to do a good thing for the forest! "

Report Abuse

yeah wrote on Jan 3, 2008 11:39 AM:

" Yeah, Rick, people opposed to the Forest Service prescribed burn program are stupid. They are so stupid that they think the paleodendrological record for the Central Hardwoods regions shows that, historically, natural fire occured on average once every 85 years; they think that "undergrowth" and "brush" are natural components of the hardwood ecosystem; they think that the material which burns in a fire and goes up in smoke as particulate matter or is washed into streams as sediment would be more beneficial if it were allowed to naturally decompose into humus and, eventually, turn into the most precious commodity in the forest: soil; they think that the rabbit and quail populations are fine, while salamanders, mollusks, forest interior neotropical migrants and other species are in decline; and they think that the Forest Service has a proven track record of misleading the public about their programs. You, by contrast, are brilliant, Rick, in your infatuation with "clear ground level habitat." "

Report Abuse

Rick wrote on Jan 2, 2008 4:00 PM:

" Are you people stupid? Use to fires would burn naturally and clear the undergrowth out making way for new life. Burning out brush doesn't kill it out completely to where it will not come back at all it clears out what is already dead so that when spring comes around and it starts growing again it isn't thick and full at the ground level. This is good for wildlife such as rabbits and quail that depend on a clear ground level habitat to survive. "

Report Abuse

none wrote on Jan 2, 2008 3:46 PM:

" Shawnee National Forest managers have no credibility when they try to hype proposals like this. For years they tried to clear cut thousands of acres around places like Bell Smith Springs as part of their money-losing timber sale program. When concerned citizens banded together to prevent this, Shawnee managers came back with another plan to cut the same trees and lose the same money, but claimed it was "ecological restoration." Public outcry and litigation eventually quashed that incarnation of the project. Now they are effectively saying, "If we can't cut it all down, can we at least burn it a little?" These government parasites give worms and weasels a bad name. "

Report Abuse

Carey wrote on Jan 2, 2008 8:39 AM:

" Prescribed burning on the Shawnee is not about restoring the land, it is about protecting Forest Service jobs. One bureaucrat in this article says they are burning now to achieve some mystical goal because "that's probably what it was like back in the day." Back in what day? He later says, "It's something that's been done back to Native American days." So the Forest Service is selecting some arbitrary date during human occupation of the land and saying that this regime is somehow "better" than it was at any other time. Give me a break. No Native American culture ever did burns that resembled ANYTHING like the ones done a bunch of government employees with drip torches spreading napalm around the woods. This is an embarrassment to scientific management and to fiscal responsibility. "

Report Abuse

Joe wrote on Jan 2, 2008 5:57 AM:

" The forest has survived for a long time without human action. Prescribed burns? I love how this is thought of to be a good thing. It helps populate the forest with different trees that wouldn't normally be there. "making them a much more valuable to the balance of the ecosystem", key word being "making". It is a forest not a walmart. It already has a balanced ecosystem or it wouldn't be there. Where does it end? At controlled burns? Parking garages? Clearcutting? Let the forest be. "

Report Abuse

Rick wrote on Jan 1, 2008 2:24 PM:

" I am glad to see the USFS is performing this practice here in Southern Illinois. The Shawnee needs this to be done to help the population of many species of plants and animals found right here in our beautiful little piece of the world. "

Report Abuse