Fire in Missouri

Fire line © Blane Heumann

Fire Terms

Prescribed fire: The deliberate and intentional setting of fire in a planned and prepared area for a specific land-management purpose. Prescribed fires are necessary for the restoration and maintenance of native habitat in the central United States.

The Nature Conservancy's Fire Initiative leads the organizations work with fire across the United States and around the world.

Prescribed burn © Blane Heumann

Safety, Science and Restoration

Prescribed fire, often called a controlled burn, has been a natural area management tool for 25 years at The Nature Conservancy. Within the Conservancy, the Missouri fire program is one of the oldest created in the late 1980s by Doug Ladd, the current director of conservation science. The Missouri program has successfully reintroduced fire to fire-adapted prairie and forest landscapes reinvigorating native plant populations and controlling the spread of invasives.

To augment the program’s longevity and staff experience, ongoing training is a vital ingredient to its continued success. Conservancy staffers learn a great deal by interacting with other state programs and agencies and continue to attend fire workshops and seminars throughout the year.

Spring Fire Season: 2007

The spring fire season in Missouri ended the first week in April and the two seasonal fire crews have been dispersed. The fire crews completed 14 burns totaling 2850 acres on seven preserves. The season "wish list" had 30 burns of 6600 acres. The weather did not cooperate and if not for one record week of burning in early March, the season totals would have been record poor. The crew burned 300 acres out of a planned 2400 at Dunn Ranch, despite a heroic effort by the crew camping in rain and high winds at the site to get small windows of opportunity to burn. Important units were left unburned due to foul weather in all parts of the state.

Other good preserve work was completed by the crews, including brush and tree cutting and fence repair work. Also, over a dozen old fire plans were updated by crew members in interactive training/planning sessions on two rainy days.

Next year, crews will be hired in both the fall and spring seasons, budget allowing, to burn over a wider range of dates and possible good weather opportunities.

Read a firsthand account of this Spring's fire season in Diary of a Burn Boss.