By Gary Sater, Friends of Pheasant Branch Conservancy, Board Member and Co-chair Restoration & Management Committee
On March 12, Quercus Land Stewardship Services conducted a successful and extensive prescribed burn within the Dane County portion of Pheasant Branch Conservancy.
As planned by our previous Land Manager, Rob Schubert, and contracted by the Friends, this burn covered the southeast Sedge Meadow, the Propagation Garden and Shannon Prairie.Conditions were favorable to conduct this burn with sufficient dried fuel on the ground in most areas, wind speed and wind direction, as well as air temperature.
The only area that did not burn as well as we had hoped were portions of Shannon Prairie, where the ground fuel was too sparse to carry the flames across that area. There was also a surprising and challenging change in wind direction during the burn. It was impressive to watch the expert Quercus burn crew respond to this change in conditions, keeping the burn successful and under their control.
The accompanying photos are drone images, taken before and after the burn, to document the effectiveness of the burn for our Land Manager. A few years ago, Rob Schubert asked me if I was interested in capturing pre- and post-invasive removal and prescribed burn management activities to assist in a more detailed assessment of what we have accomplished. Some of these images have also been used in documentation for our Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) grants.
