Hallaway Hill to go up in smoke next week

Maplewood State Park, located in northwestern Otter Tail County, will be conducting prescribed burns this spring as part of buckthorn control projects.



At Maplewood, European Buckthorn, a Minnesota restricted noxious weed, has invaded hundreds of acres of the woodlands. Using saws and treating the cut stumps, park staff are systematically removing larger buckthorn shrubs from the woodlands. Once the parent plants are removed, fire provides an efficient, cost-effective tool to control buckthorn seedlings over large acres of infestation.

Objectives for burning a site may include suppression of exotic species, reducing brush encroachment, fuel reduction, removing dead grass and duff to prepare for prairie planting, enhancing new plantings, reducing insect and disease infestations, and wildlife habitat improvement.

"Prescribed burning simulates the critical role that fires play in forest and prairie ecosystems, their regeneration and continuance," said Chris Weir-Koetter, northwest regional resource specialist from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). "As Minnesota was settled, wildfires were suppressed to prevent loss of property and lives, disrupting the dynamic process that helped maintain fire-dependent ecosystems."



Wildfires occur when conditions are right: hot days with lots of dry fuel available and with strong winds to fan the flames. These conditions create hot fires that are difficult to control. When planning a prescribed burn, land managers seek fewer extreme conditions: dry and windy enough for a fire to burn on its own, but cool and calm enough to control, said Weir-Koetter. In Minnesota, these conditions usually occur in the spring after the snow melt and before leaf out, and in the fall after frosts have cured vegetation. A burn prescription also limits the number of acres burned to ensure that the burn staff can safely monitor the fire.

For each of the sites to be burned, a control line is put into place prior to the burn. This control line could be a wet area, a road or trail, or a "black line" (an area burnt out prior to a site burn). Most fires are set as backfires, meaning that the fires are set against the wind and are forced to creep along the ground into the wind.



Public access to the area to be burned on a specific day will be controlled and some park trails may be temporarily closed. A specific date for the prescribed burn will be set according to weather and ground conditions, likely sometime in mid- to late-April.

"We encourage people to come visit the park before and after the burn," said Weir-Koetter. "People are usually very surprised by how quickly the burned areas turn green with new growth. It's really amazing how quickly vegetation returns and a new round of natural succession begins-in this case, we hope without as much buckthorn."