Parks on Fire: The Benefits of Prescribed Burns

March 26, 2025

By Julie McLaughlin, Natural Resources Coordinator

If you see or smell smoke this spring at a Metropark, don’t rush to call 911. This window of time between snowmelt and green-up is the busiest time of year for lighting vegetation on fire using a prescribed burn.

A prescribed burn, also called a controlled burn, is a deliberate, closely-managed fire done under specific conditions with trained staff to manage a piece of landscape. Controlled burns are intended to burn rapidly, low, and to quickly move across the land where they reduce woody vegetation, knock back nonindigenous plant species, and, through the ash left behind, convert plant matter into soil nutrients. The dark ash also warms the soil and allows for rapid plant growth.

Fire in the Metroparks

Like many land agencies, the Metroparks use prescribed fire as one of their land stewardship tools. Using fire for cultural and ecological benefits goes back thousands of years. In fact, many of our natural areas, such as prairies, savannas, and dry forests, co-evolved with fire as long as 10,000 years ago when the glaciers retreated. Many ecosystems, including in the Great Lakes, have adapted to fire both from natural causes such as lightning strike and thousands of years of human management of landscapes by indigenous peoples.

The ecological benefits of fire are plentiful:

– Removes the thick layer of leaf litter (also called duff or thatch), exposing the soil to warm up quickly and seeds to germinate

– Returns nutrients like carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus back into the ground

– Damage invasive shrubs and small trees

– Reduces fuel load that would feed uncontrolled burning in case of wildfire

– Opens-up the canopy for plants that need more sunlight, like spring wildflowers and oaks

– Studies also suggest reductions in tick populations and their associated diseases (such as Lyme) through both direct harm to the arthropods during the burn and through reduction in the leaf litter where they live

Background

The relationship between humans and fire has a long and complex history. Throughout the past several thousand years, indigenous tribes in current-day Michigan were using fire for reasons that are still relevant today, such as increasing biodiversity, reducing fuel loads, and stimulating plant growth. Fire also creates space for grazing and hunting, crop management, pest management reduction, and easier movement across the landscape.

When Europeans colonized the region, they wrongly perceived the landscape as untouched by humans. Viewing nature as an endless resource, they enforced a fire suppression policy to protect timber harvests—a practice that persisted for nearly 200 years. This led to dense stands of young trees, excessive fuel buildup, and greater vulnerability to wildfire. Additionally, the continued encroachment of nonindigenous plants in all habitat types that are not typically fire adapted, means that fire becomes an effective tool for reducing nonnative plants while allowing fire-adapted species to thrive. With climate change intensifying drought conditions, the need for proactive measures like prescribed fire is more critical than ever.

Planning and Purpose

Before setting anything alight within the Metroparks, a lot of work happens behind the scenes. Each year, Metroparks’ natural resources staff take a fire refresher class and fitness exam, map out the units to be burned that season, mow burn breaks (areas that have reduced fuel load to prevent the fire from advancing) around the unit, write a burn plan that includes goals, logistics, and safety; and apply for permits with the local fire department. They also check their database for any threatened or endangered species and how to adjust fire plans to make sure they have a safe refuge and habitat to use during and after the fire.

Prescribed burning depends on many environmental variables, especially wind speed and direction, and humidity and so burns are scheduled only a day or two before they occur, in anticipation of good fire weather and often subject to change. During burn season, natural resources staff are basically “on call” and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Not all habitats burn the same, depending on what type of vegetation (aka fuel) makes up the area. Grasslands and savannas will burn much faster and more frequently than closed canopy forests. Out west, valleys and mountains also drive the rate and direction of fire. This variability in timing, intensity, and conditions is also known as pyrodiversity and can directly impact biodiversity. For example, a patchy prairie burned in multiple units with a variety of intensities and seasons, which leads to varying heights and types of vegetation, is likely to have a higher diversity of grassland birds.

As Katie Carlisle, Chief of Natural Resources and Regulatory Compliance summed up; “Prescribed fire is such a great tool for land management because of all the diverse goals it can accomplish. So many of our natural communities are adapted to fire from centuries of indigenous practices. This spring, our prescribed burn sites include prairies, mature forests, wetlands, and recently planted pollinator gardens. Fire can help promote native species and suppress invasive species in all these landscapes.”

Prescribed fire is becoming more integrated into stewardship and restoration as more and more people recognize the mutual benefits of partnership between humans and fire.