Restoration

Prescribed Burns

Essential for Stable & Healthy Natural Habitats

Controlled Burns: Every Spring & Fall Season

Conducting a controlled burn in any of the park district’s 415-plus acres of natural areas is a complex process and dependent on numerous environmental conditions. Temperature, precipitation, humidity levels, wind speeds and wind direction are just a few factors that all have to align in order for the burn to happen.

“It’s not black and white. It’s 100 percent dependent on the weather and conditions,” said Park District Ecological Restoration Supervisor Ryan Solomon.

He stressed that even though the park district plans for two burn seasons — one each in the fall and spring — the conditions may not allow for all or any of the burns to take place.

Benefits of Burning

The deliberate process of applying fire to natural areas that are fire tolerant is conducted to restore the health of the ecosystem.

For example, prairies have evolved with fire and many native plant species are fire tolerant, but the non-native weeds are not. Burns help remove invasive and non-native plants such as garlic mustard.

“Killing off 95 percent of garlic mustard from the prairie through a controlled burn allows all the plants in that ecosystem to better compete,” Solomon said.

Controlled fires also help with nutrient recycling. The ash from a fire is incredibly rich in nutrients and minerals and get recycled back into the soil. This, along with more sunlight and warm soil, allow the plants to sprout more vigorously the next growing season.

Communication

In advance of a controlled burn, the park district will notify residents and businesses in the area. Postcards will be mailed, and adjacent businesses will receive a call the day of the burn. Additionally, signage will be put along roads near the burn site and/or within parks to inform guests.

Site Prep

The day of the burn, park district staff will prepare the site. If, for example, residential homes neighbor the burn area, the park district will mow around those areas to create burn breaks, preventing the fire and smoke from harming residents’ trees and other landscaping.

“We have to think about the heat, not just the flames,” Solomon said. If there are pine trees next to the burn site, the radiant heat would brown out those trees and kill the needles even if the flames don’t touch them, he explained. Therefore, crews will mow to create a buffer between the site and the residential properties.

Solomon added the number of staff onsite during a burn depends on the size, complexities and conditions. “Some controlled burns require three crew members, but others need more than 10,” he said.

Woody Winter Work

Staff & volunteers restore natural areas

While walking a trail this winter in one of the St. Charles Park District’s natural areas you may occasionally find workers cutting shrubs, clearing brush and even cutting down trees. This may seem counterintuitive, but it is necessary work that must be completed to help woodland ecosystems in this region thrive. And part of that work is made possible by resident volunteers. Winter woody work includes ridding a woodland area of trees, brush and shrubs that are nonnative and/or blocking sunlight from reaching the native understory. If the native understory – the layer of vegetation between the woodland canopy and floor consisting of shrubs and herbaceous vegetation — does not prosper, the entire ecosystem will unravel. The goal is to have 30-50 percent canopy openings in a woodland setting, a percentage needed for acorns to germinate. This, in turn, affects the insects, birds and wildlife that depend on those natives to survive.