Fall and Spring Burns Have Helped Restore Wisconsin’s Mukwonago River Watershed

The Nature Conservancy and Others Use Prescribed Fire to Maintain or Restore Natural Areas

MADISON, Wis — MADISON, Wis — The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin announced Wednesday that over the past six months it has used trained fire crews to burn a total of 125 acres at three of its preserves located within the watershed of the Mukwonago River.

The Conservancy and other land managers including private landowners, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service use prescribed fire as an ecological tool to restore or maintain natural areas. Smoke from prescribed burns is a common sight in the spring.

Fire has been a dominant force in shaping Wisconsin’s landscape for thousands of years. Many types of habitat, including prairies, oak savannas and wetlands, depend on naturally occurring fire.

The Conservancy conducted prescribed burns this spring at its Lulu Lake Preserve and Pickerel Lake Fen preserve. In November, the Conservancy conducted a burn at its Crooked Creek Preserve. All three preserves are open to the public for compatible outdoor recreation including hiking, photography and birding.

For directions and other information on these and other Conservancy preserves in Wisconsin, visit The Nature Conservancy on the web at nature.org/wisconsin and click on “Places We Protect.”

“Spring is a great time to visit these preserves and see firsthand the benefits of prescribed fire,” said Pat Morton, director of the Conservancy’s Mukwonago River Watershed Project Office. “The first wildflowers are starting to bloom and many of our native plants and grasses are green and thriving. Fire helps maintain this striking, relatively open natural landscape.”

Fire helps to reduce competition for sunlight from trees and shrubs. It also consumes accumulated ground litter, releasing nutrients that are an important source of fertilizer.

Jack Boeing of East Troy decided to conduct prescribed burns on his 155-acre property last year and again this year after seeing the effects of fire on the Conservancy’s Lulu Lake Preserve.

The result has been that he’s now finding native plants on his land that he didn’t encounter before. Invasive species such as garlic mustard are also much easier to control. “The benefits are truly amazing,” Boeing said. “It just opens things back up to the way they’re supposed to be."

The Nature Conservancy uses trained fire crews to burn at its preserves. These carefully conducted burns are carried out according to strict guidelines called a burn prescription that outlines acceptable conditions under which the burns are to be undertaken, including expected fire intensity, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, air temperature and dryness of the vegetation. The prescription also describes how the fire will be ignited and contained. A back-up plan is included in case the fire does not behave as expected. After the burn, mop-up crews remain in the area to make sure the fire does not re-ignite.

Due to changing weather conditions, fire crews often cancel burns and then reschedule them for another day when conditions are suitable.

The Nature Conservancy has been using fire as an ecological management tool on partner and Conservancy lands nationwide for more than 40 years.

The Conservancy owns about 1,400 acres in the Mukwonago River watershed including 374 acres donated late last year by the late Newell and Ann Meyer. The Newell and Ann Meyer Nature Preserve will be open to the public later this year.

A mosaic of forest, wetlands, savannas, rivers and lakes, the Mukwonago River watershed is a natural treasure located about 35 minutes from Milwaukee. The surrounding landscape is home to a wide array of native plants and wildlife, including sandhill cranes, tree frogs, mink, red fox, butterflies and dragonflies. It supports 60 species classified by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources as endangered, threatened or of special concern. Notable examples include the state-threatened longear sunfish, Blanding’s turtle and Cerulean warbler and the state-endangered rainbow shell mussel. The Mukwonago River watershed spans more than 55,000 acres and it includes healthy wetlands studied by scientists from throughout the Americas as well as globally threatened oak savannas.

The Conservancy has been working for more than two decades to protect water quality and the extraordinary variety of rare fish, mussels and other species that depend upon the river – the cleanest river in southeastern Wisconsin – by conserving natural areas within the watershed. The Conservancy works with partners throughout the watershed and has been involved in the Mukwonago River Initiative since it was created seven years ago.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. In Wisconsin, the Conservancy has helped conserve more than 140,000 acres since 1960. The Conservancy has more than 21,000 members in Wisconsin and offices in Madison, Baraboo, East Troy, Minocqua and Sturgeon Bay. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at nature.org/wisconsin.