It is imperative that natural resource managers utilize fire in land management just as it is critical for the public to understand the vital and singular role prescribed fire plays in managing Illinois’ natural areas. Significantly more prescribed fire needs to occur across the state to maintain the ecological health of Illinois' natural areas. Fire is also the most cost effective tool in the land manager’s toolbox. Fire is also an important tool in the management of invasive species. The future of Illinois' natural areas depends on repeated application of fire that maintains appropriate tree species and densities in our woodlands and keeps our wetland and grasslands in check. Today prescribed fire is the most important management practice in maintaining and restoring healthy landscapes. Landscape scale fire, both natural and anthropogenic, has shaped the natural communities and ecologies of Illinois including its forests, savannas, wetlands and prairies. The climate and rainfall in Illinois is fully capable of supporting trees, but fire enabled the prairie to persist for thousands of years up to the time of European settlement. The Prairie State, part of the Prairie Peninsula that stretches from the Great Plains to eastern Ohio, was historically dominated by prairie. Illinois Nature Preserves Commission Sites.Greater Prairie-Chicken at Prairie Ridge.Endangered and Threatened Species Program.
This information is then used after a fire to develop specific monitoring criteria to ensure compliance with the HMP. The FMO then steps-down the HMP to specific fire management actions through the Fire Management Plan, to the prescribed burn plan, emergency stabilization plan, or other fire related plans. The Fire Management Officer (FMO) should consult with the refuge biologist, the HMP, and local or regional experts to include a list of invasive plants, their locations, and how they may affect fire operations or the natural recovery of burned areas. The HMP should acknowledge concerns with invasive plant issues on the unit whether it's an invasive plant already present that might be enhanced by fire or an invasive plant outside the unit that might opportunistically colonize after a fire. Fire Planning and Invasive PlantsĪddressing invasive plants in fire planning begins with the Habitat Management Plan (HMP). Therefore, addressing invasive plants is an important element of fire planning, even when fires are prescribed to achieve objectives other than invasive plant management. Invasive plant populations may also influence fire behavior. However, fires create conditions such as open soil surfaces and increased nutrient availability that may enhance existing invasive plant populations and promote colonization by other unwanted species.
Land managers now recognize the ecological importance of fire, which has become an important tool for many land management organizations and agencies. US Fish and Wildlife Service has used prescribed fire for decades to control hazardous fuels on its lands.
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