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Illinois Beach State Park Prairie Burn - Fail
- Thread starter Leo Schordje
- Start date
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Leo Schordje
wilted blossom
12 days after the fire
I have heard many a volunteer go on endlessly about how wonderful fires are to get rid of Eurasian weed species. A couple photos to document that this is not as sure a way to eliminate Eurasians as you might believe. I do accept that a well timed fire is a good management tool, but the emphasis is on well timed. Please discuss with your fellow volunteers the next time you are out at a prairie the fact that it is possible to harm the cause more than help the cause of preservation if you are thoughtless with your use of fire.
12 days after the fire
European Thistle the only plant green in this roughly 3 foot by 3 foot plot. This spot is in the oak savana part, oak litter an some very nice flowering natives with prairie dropseed and fine grasses is the normal cover here. This thistle was there before the fire, and now it has a nice head start on any competition. Again, likely the fire was too hot, killing more than would be desirable.
Dandelion again, with a nice head start because the natives were set back by the fire.
12 days post burn
Notice that the spacing between shoots is nearly two feet or more. To my eye it appears that most of these new shoots are either a grass, some trees, and a few Eurasian weed species. Prior to the fire this area had a high percentage of native prairie forbs. The timing of this fire was not good. It is wrong to assume ALL fires when ever they happen are 'good' for the prairie. This should have been a small 10 acre burn and it was negligently allowed to race through nearly 500 acres.
looking a little to the right standing at roughly the same spot last year
These are the non-orchid 'forbs' and their insect polinators I am so worried about, because without their pollinators, they are as good as extinct.
note the native bumble bee on the aster
I have heard many a volunteer go on endlessly about how wonderful fires are to get rid of Eurasian weed species. A couple photos to document that this is not as sure a way to eliminate Eurasians as you might believe. I do accept that a well timed fire is a good management tool, but the emphasis is on well timed. Please discuss with your fellow volunteers the next time you are out at a prairie the fact that it is possible to harm the cause more than help the cause of preservation if you are thoughtless with your use of fire.
12 days after the fire
European Thistle the only plant green in this roughly 3 foot by 3 foot plot. This spot is in the oak savana part, oak litter an some very nice flowering natives with prairie dropseed and fine grasses is the normal cover here. This thistle was there before the fire, and now it has a nice head start on any competition. Again, likely the fire was too hot, killing more than would be desirable.
Dandelion again, with a nice head start because the natives were set back by the fire.
12 days post burn
Notice that the spacing between shoots is nearly two feet or more. To my eye it appears that most of these new shoots are either a grass, some trees, and a few Eurasian weed species. Prior to the fire this area had a high percentage of native prairie forbs. The timing of this fire was not good. It is wrong to assume ALL fires when ever they happen are 'good' for the prairie. This should have been a small 10 acre burn and it was negligently allowed to race through nearly 500 acres.
looking a little to the right standing at roughly the same spot last year
These are the non-orchid 'forbs' and their insect polinators I am so worried about, because without their pollinators, they are as good as extinct.
note the native bumble bee on the aster
likespaphs
some call me brian
love that gentian.
dear gentian: please survive the fire. thank you
dear gentian: please survive the fire. thank you
K
Kevin
Guest
Thanks for updating us, Leo. I'm wondering if you could comment on how things would be different if this would have been a natural fire, as opposed to a 'controlled' burn (althought it seem that in this case, it was not controlled). Are natural fires ever 'too hot'? It seems odd that any native species would be harmed by something that is part of the natural state of the ecosystem. Hundreds of years ago, there were not the non-native species we have now. Would the situation here be different if there were no non-native species present?
Leo Schordje
wilted blossom
----> Kevin, as I said earlier, management of SMALL ISLAND REMNANTS of original habitat is VERY DIFFERENT than what used to happen in nature. Our parks are so small compared to the original 'natural' conditions pre-Columbus time that to talk 'natural' management is nonsense. This is an artificial situation created by humans and must be managed by humans who accept the fact that they have to take on this responsibility of preserving these small islands of habitat. These islands of habitat have already been reduced below the minimum size needed to be self sustaining. This is NOT A NATURAL SYSTEM ANY MORE. Has not been a natural system for more than 100 years. We are saving these little life boats of habitat for our future, perhaps in the hopes that once again in the future prairie acreage will be measured in the tens of millions of acres as in the days of old, rather than in the low thousands of acres.
Volcanoes, Fire, Flood, Earthquake, Tornado, Hurricane, Drought, all are natural events, and yes, natural events can be harmful to SMALL SPECIFIC LOCATIONS. Look at those poor cats that got caught at Pompei. Yeah, the ecosystem recovered, why a few hundred years later you couldn't tell the volcano had erupted. Great vineyards are there today.
When the acreage of dunelands and dune prairies were in the millions of acres, stretching in an unbroken band for the 1800 miles around the shore of Lake Michigan, if a fire was too hot in one spot, no big deal, new recruits would recolonize in short order. Today the remaining acreage of preserved habitat is too small, the resiliance of the ecosystem is no longer there.
TODAY, there is this tiny little island of ecosystem, isolated by nearly 100 miles from any similar ecosystem. There is no place from which to recruit the species whose populations were reduced or expriated by the over zealous burning. Man reduced these ecosystems below robust sustainability, so man must manage them carefully if they are to persist.
Volcanoes, Fire, Flood, Earthquake, Tornado, Hurricane, Drought, all are natural events, and yes, natural events can be harmful to SMALL SPECIFIC LOCATIONS. Look at those poor cats that got caught at Pompei. Yeah, the ecosystem recovered, why a few hundred years later you couldn't tell the volcano had erupted. Great vineyards are there today.
When the acreage of dunelands and dune prairies were in the millions of acres, stretching in an unbroken band for the 1800 miles around the shore of Lake Michigan, if a fire was too hot in one spot, no big deal, new recruits would recolonize in short order. Today the remaining acreage of preserved habitat is too small, the resiliance of the ecosystem is no longer there.
TODAY, there is this tiny little island of ecosystem, isolated by nearly 100 miles from any similar ecosystem. There is no place from which to recruit the species whose populations were reduced or expriated by the over zealous burning. Man reduced these ecosystems below robust sustainability, so man must manage them carefully if they are to persist.
Thistles are one of the quickest plants to come back. The sites I manage have issues with Canada thistle. I like the burn then spray tactic. Spot spraying those thistles now with a broad leaf herbicide will knock them back hard. The reason why the non native plants are of concern is becasue of how fast they recover and grow.
The general theory of managing prairie iwith spring fires is as follows: Perienial grasses and plants store energy in thier root over winter. In the spring they use that energy to make new leaves, and eventually seeds. At a certain point, the plant has grown ehough leaves to begin putting energy back into the roots for the next year. Befroe this point, the plants energy reservs keep getting lower (think upside down bell-curve). Ideally, burns are timed for when the undesireable plants (usually cool season grasses and forbs) have used up most of thier reserves. We burn thier leaves, so they have to use the little bit of reserves they have left to gorw new leaves, furthur weakening the plant. In the man time, the native grasses have yet to emerge from the soil. This gives them a competative advantage. Thats the gist of it. There s other reasons like removing thatch, but the timing issue has to do with weakening undesirable species.
On the supject of fire temperature. There can be negative effects on the soil and soil organisms (and seeds and plants) if the fire does not move fast enough and there is lots of fuel. Also, the first step of a controlled burn is allowing the fire to burn backwards, into the wind. This is called a back burn. IT can get to hot, becasue of the speed of the fire. When a fire burns to hot, the ground is left white. From you picture and you description of the conditions on the day of the fire, I suspect it was not a very hot fire. The picture with the thistle show oak leaves and twigs which have not burned. A fire which burns too hot, burns everything. I have only seen this once or twice in the dozens of burns I have particiapted in.
Kyle
The general theory of managing prairie iwith spring fires is as follows: Perienial grasses and plants store energy in thier root over winter. In the spring they use that energy to make new leaves, and eventually seeds. At a certain point, the plant has grown ehough leaves to begin putting energy back into the roots for the next year. Befroe this point, the plants energy reservs keep getting lower (think upside down bell-curve). Ideally, burns are timed for when the undesireable plants (usually cool season grasses and forbs) have used up most of thier reserves. We burn thier leaves, so they have to use the little bit of reserves they have left to gorw new leaves, furthur weakening the plant. In the man time, the native grasses have yet to emerge from the soil. This gives them a competative advantage. Thats the gist of it. There s other reasons like removing thatch, but the timing issue has to do with weakening undesirable species.
On the supject of fire temperature. There can be negative effects on the soil and soil organisms (and seeds and plants) if the fire does not move fast enough and there is lots of fuel. Also, the first step of a controlled burn is allowing the fire to burn backwards, into the wind. This is called a back burn. IT can get to hot, becasue of the speed of the fire. When a fire burns to hot, the ground is left white. From you picture and you description of the conditions on the day of the fire, I suspect it was not a very hot fire. The picture with the thistle show oak leaves and twigs which have not burned. A fire which burns too hot, burns everything. I have only seen this once or twice in the dozens of burns I have particiapted in.
Kyle
Scooby5757
lightly hirsute
Any update on how things are looking out there?
Leo Schordje
wilted blossom
Things are not looking good, yes, there is green, but between the fire and the subsequent drought this year, it is not a healthy prairie any more. Grasses and asters and goldenrod are abundant. Eurasian weeds are abundant. Lots of buck thorn, dandelions & thistle.
This last 2 years have seen absolutely no gentians, no Platanthera, only one or two Spiranthes, as opposed to the hundreds I've seen in the area in the past. Butterfly weed, the orange flowered Asclepias is greatly reduced. None of the narrow leaved milkweed (rare originally, now I can't find any). All in all the park is in serious decline.
The good news is the park has banned the group of volunteers who insisted on setting this fire from the park. From now on this park will only be burned by park service employees. Bad news is that the state of IL has been curtailing funding. The south unit of the park did not open for much of the year do to lack of funds.
We'll see what the future brings. I will take some pictures, maybe best to do a survey next year, especially if it is a little wetter. Weather was so strange in spring with unusual warmth in March-April and then unusual cold April-May. Followed by a very, very dry drought. Rain has fallen in August, but we are at least 12 inches below normal in our rainfall for the year. All the little damp low spots between old dunes are bone dry this year. Cattails have even died in some low areas, dried out. So this is not a good year to really evaluate just how bad the fire was for these plant populations. There definitely seem to be some whole species missing and many while present are in seriously reduced numbers. AND worse, the Eurasian non-natives had held their own or perhaps have even expanded. Small remnant populations are easily destroyed.
This last 2 years have seen absolutely no gentians, no Platanthera, only one or two Spiranthes, as opposed to the hundreds I've seen in the area in the past. Butterfly weed, the orange flowered Asclepias is greatly reduced. None of the narrow leaved milkweed (rare originally, now I can't find any). All in all the park is in serious decline.
The good news is the park has banned the group of volunteers who insisted on setting this fire from the park. From now on this park will only be burned by park service employees. Bad news is that the state of IL has been curtailing funding. The south unit of the park did not open for much of the year do to lack of funds.
We'll see what the future brings. I will take some pictures, maybe best to do a survey next year, especially if it is a little wetter. Weather was so strange in spring with unusual warmth in March-April and then unusual cold April-May. Followed by a very, very dry drought. Rain has fallen in August, but we are at least 12 inches below normal in our rainfall for the year. All the little damp low spots between old dunes are bone dry this year. Cattails have even died in some low areas, dried out. So this is not a good year to really evaluate just how bad the fire was for these plant populations. There definitely seem to be some whole species missing and many while present are in seriously reduced numbers. AND worse, the Eurasian non-natives had held their own or perhaps have even expanded. Small remnant populations are easily destroyed.
