Benefitting from the Burn

It may seem counter-intuitive, but sometimes you have to burn something to make it stronger. Such is the case with your natural areas, which typically become healthier and less costly to maintain in the long run, through periodic prescribed burning.

A prescribed burn provides the following benefits:

• Helps control invasive plants that are shallow rooted or not fire tolerant;
• Blackens the ground surface and eliminates dead thatch, allowing the sun to increase spring soil temperature to promote earlier, more abundant growth;
• Maintains prairie vegetation and a more open woodland and savanna community by controlling woody species;
• Provides nutrients via the release of nitrogen into the soil from existing plant biomass; and
• Provides scarification of certain desirable prairie seeds that depend on fire to germinate.

The time to act is now, however, if you want to enhance your natural area with a prescribed burn during the 2011/2012 burn season. Because it takes approximately 90 days to get an Open Burn Permit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, your permit application needs to be submitted as soon as possible. As noted in the table below, burn season typically runs from November 15 to April 1 each year in the Midwest, although weather conditions can dramatically influence the "burn window."

Please contact Greg Wolterstorff at (630) 729-6334 to help you obtain a burn permit. Or email him at  gwolterstorff@v3co.com for additional insight or guidance on your specific situation.


 

Be Aware: New Legislation Affects Prescribed Burns    

It used to be that anyone with an accelerant and a basic idea of how to control fires could oversee a prescribed burn. That's no longer the case following new State of Illinois legislation that mandates that all prescribed burns be performed by a Certified Prescribed Burn Manager. Extensive education, training and experience are required to earn the certification and are detailed in the Illinois Prescribed Burning Act.