A prescribed burn to take place near Garden Hill in a few weeks

A prescribed burn takes place. Photo courtesy of Northumberland Land Trust Facebook.

By: Dan Jones

A prescribed burn of grasslands in the Garden Hill area is scheduled for a few weeks at the Northumberland Land Trust's McEwan Nature Reserve. A prescribed burn is a fire intentionally set by a professional, who manages the flames in a designated area, under strict weather conditions. John Gaele, who is a property steward of the reserve states the burn will help manage grasslands in a scattered treed area.

“What it does is maintain a habitat that would tend to get overgrown by forest. In our case, the whole burn area is in fact surrounded by forested areas and those trees without fire would encroach more and more every year where eventually there would be no grassland,” Gaele explained. 

The burn will be conducted by Lands and Forests Consulting (LFC). Fires clear scrub and brush, allowing sunlight to reach the soil where native grassland seeds lie. Native prairie species flourish following a fire, restoring the native grassland habitat of the area. For safety reasons, the public is not allowed access to the prescribed burn area during the burns. Prescribed burns are weather-dependent and site-specific. For a short time, there will be a visible smoke column rising from the burn area. Manual manipulation of the smoke column can be achieved by the type of ignition pattern, and no problems are expected to result.

“Grasslands are of particular interest because such habitats have undergone a drastic reduction in Ontario over the past century,” said Geale.  “As a result, many grassland plants, and the animal species that depend on them, have similarly declined to the point where many are now considered species at risk.”

The prescribed burn may take place at the end of April or early May, weather dependent.