Prescribed burns maintain health of grasslands
Carefully laid fires manage ecosystems, Renny Grilz and Matthew Braun write.
Grass fires are inevitable in Saskatchewan, as seen by the fires recently in the Dundurn and Lumsden areas. The landscape that defines this prairie province is dry and windy.
Wildfires can start a number of different ways and are frightening, dangerous and potentially destructive. Prescribed fires, however, are a relatively safe way to manage a natural ecosystem in Saskatchewan.
Fires were a larger part of life on the Prairies before roads and fields broke up the sea of grass that is the Prairies. Early settlers did their best to protect their homes and families from wildfires. Indigenous peoples used fire to influence bison movement.
Research has shown that during the roughly 10,000 years before colonization, fire happened every five years to about every 12 years. Many factors have led to a significant reduction in the number and size of wildfires in Saskatchewan in the last 100 years. Annually cropped fields that do not burn as readily have replaced much of our native grasslands. Saskatchewan’s 150,000-plus kilometres of gravel roads reduce the spread of fires that do start. Livestock producers have been key stewards of the prairie, and without them more native prairie would already have been converted to crop land. Most remaining grasslands are managed for annual livestock grazing, which removes grass and reduces the likelihood of wildfire.
New research is showing that a combination of grazing and fire is needed to maintain the health of Saskatchewan grasslands for the plants and animals found there. Without regular five- to 12-year disturbances, some birds and plants that prefer vegetation structure created by fire are decreasing in abundance. Native prairie is considered the most endangered ecosystem in the world, and many species that call grasslands home are endangered or at risk.
Prescribed fires are successful because of planning, training and equipment.
Prescribed fire is a management tool designed to recreate some of the effects of fire while minimizing the risks. Prescribed fire, as its name implies, achieves specific results under specific conditions. Organizations like Meewasin Valley Authority, Nature Conservancy of Canada, Saskatchewan Parks Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service, University of Saskatchewan, and Parks Canada (Grasslands National Park and Prince Albert National Park) use prescribed fire to improve wildlife habitat, control unwanted plants and reduce the risk of wildfire.
Prescribed fires are successful because of planning, training and equipment. Agencies planning a prescribed fire look at the amount of grass in an area, the direction of the winds, nearby infrastructure, where the smoke will go and many other factors, depending on the desired outcome. Fireguards of mowed grass and wetted grass help control the spread of fire, in addition to natural guards like wetlands. Fires are lit only during very specific wind and moisture conditions. Each planned burn unit has a specific outcome in mind and precise weather factors that will achieve that outcome.
These measures dramatically reduce the chance of fire escaping. The result is often a very precise square of burned grass exactly where it was intended.
Due to the current dry weather conditions in Saskatchewan, we are postponing our burn plans until we receive rain. We will only use prescribed fire when the exact burn plan parameters are met. It is important to remember as we travel across our province this spring and we see plumes of smoke that not all fires are the same.
Prescribed fires are controlled burns set under specific conditions to safely achieve very specific goals, often with conservation in mind. Wildfires are started unintentionally or escape accidentally.
Saskatchewan grasslands evolved under thousands of years of large variations in annual precipitation, grazing and fire.