Prairie Burn

A controlled burn was conducted as one of the maintenance tools for the six acre prairie at the Hudsonville Nature Center. While conditions were slightly less than optimal, we still were able to get in a good and successful burn. As a result of the humidity being at 59 percent and a light sprinkle of rain there was more smoke than in some past burns.

Someone asked why we do a controlled burn? Good question. The main reason is that a timely fire will help kill unwanted cool season weeds, some unwanted perennial weeds and help control woody plants that  may be coming in. Since a prairie is made up of grasses and some flowering forbs, we don’t want trees from the surrounding woods to establish or else we will loose the openness of the prairie and they will eventually shade out the sun loving prairie plants. Any prairie plants will tolerate the heat of the fire and recover quickly. Since most of the prairie plants are warm season plants, there is not much new growth this early in the season. Any of the prairie plants that are showing green growth will fully recover and in a couple of weeks you will not see and damage to them. A burn also helps to release the nutrients from old plant material more quickly into the soil and thus making it available to the plants sooner. The prairie as a whole will be healthier and have much better growth this summer.

Additional measures such as cutting or brush hogging the sumacs and other trees or shrubs is also being done. The goal is to have an open prairie and maintain it as such.