On March 21st, 2022, the first full day of the spring season, Quercus Land Stewardship Services, conducted a successful prescribed burn of the western PBC prairie along Pheasant Branch Road that had not been previously mowed last year. Both mowing and prescribed burns are preferred and effective methods of controlling cool season grasses and weeds and preventing invasive trees, shrubs and vines from growing in the prairie. Additionally, burning off last year’s dead plant growth facilitates exposing the soil to the warming rays of the sun and allows the warm soil prairie grasses and flowers to get a head start on the next growing season. In the past, both natural causes such as lightning and deliberate actions by Indigenous Peoples served to keep native prairies diverse and healthy. We now use prescribed burns in this same manner for similar purposes in land management. The accompanying pre- and post-burn images were taken by drone photography to aid us in assessing the effectiveness of our burns.
Gary Sater
FOPBC Board Member and Co-chair of the Restoration and Management Committee
