Using Fire to Restore Illinois Prairies and Woodlands

Prescribed fire clears the dense shrubs and foliage on woodland floors, allowing sunlight to get to young oak saplings and help them to grow into mature trees. The thick bark of older oaks makes them fire-resistant. What we typically find now in our woods are mature, sometimes majestic oaks but few young oaks to take their place when they die. Some call these oak communities the living dead, which is zombie-movie dramatic but close to the mark. 

The red-headed woodpecker is found in oak woodlands across Illinois. Research shows that populations of red-headed woodpeckers increase in woodlands where prescribed fire is regularly applied. One reason may be that fires leave standing dead trees, which the woodpeckers like to nest in. Another potential reason is that fire helps clear dense brush from forest floors, ensuring that acorns get the sunlight they need to grow into oak trees, which attract the insects that woodpeckers eat.

Research suggests that ground-nesting bees prefer to nest in burned patches of prairies than unburned patches. Meanwhile, in oak savannas, specialized bees rely on native plants that grow on woodland floors. For instance, the Jacob’s ladder miner bee (Andrena polemonii) only visits the woodland flowers of Jacob’s ladder. As oak woodlands get overrun by invasive shrubs and foliage, native plants like Jacob’s ladder are in decline. Prescribed fire can clear away invasive plants and allow more space for native plants—and the insects that depend on them. 

Many native prairie wildflowers appear to thrive after prescribed fires. A recent study on the narrow-leaved purple coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia) identified a potential reason why: Fire helps the plants that live on a prairie patch sync their bloom times, which makes it easier for the flowers to reproduce. In the year after a fire, seed production among coneflowers on a 100-acre prairie in Minnesota nearly doubled.

Jack pines, which are considered endangered in Illinois, produce cones (known as serotinous cones) that need heat from fire or sunlight to open up and release seeds. The tree tends to thrive in areas with a history of fire.

Makenna Baxter was one of the first graduates of TNC’s Women in Fire Fellowship in Illinois, which gives women, LGBTQ+ and nonbinary people training and experience in fire management. 

Baxter is now a full-time burn crew member for TNC North America. Prior to her current position, she worked for our Southern Illinois fire crew. 

What was your favorite part of the Women in Fire Fellowship? 

Starting my fire career in this program allowed me to gain fundamental knowledge that I’ve been able to grow off of and become a more well-rounded fire practitioner in a space that’s encouraging and safe. 

Only about 10% of wildland firefighters are women. Has it been challenging to be a woman in this field? 

There are always challenges with being a woman in any field of work. I am thankful for all the women who came before me who helped pave the way for the younger generation of firefighters just like myself. Every day it’s everyone’s job to make their work environment feel safe to women, transgender and non-binary people, especially in fire. 

What do you like about your current position as a TNC burn crew member? 

This is the most rewarding job I have ever had. I get to go to work feeling like I’m making a difference, not only in the environment but for trying to break down the hypermasculine walls of fire culture and make it an inclusive space for all to grow. I feel like I’m becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Rodolfo Zuniga Villegas is the stewardship manager at TNC’s Kankakee Sands-Illinois Preserve. A certified burn boss, Rodolfo has a master’s from Cornell University, a bachelor’s from Costa Rica State University and decades of experience working to protect ecosystems around the globe.  

What drew you to a career in conservation?  

I’ve always been attached to nature. I grew up in Costa Rica, and since I was a kid, I used to hunt small game in the nearby forests. Eventually I decided I wanted a conservation career, so I studied for two years to become a forest engineer and then started working as a park ranger for Costa Rica’s national park service. I had a lot of fun in that job, but eventually I wanted something different, and there was an opportunity to become a parataxonomist, so I did that, starting with a biodiversity inventory of a national park, surveying insects, plants, rocks—everything. Through this career move, I met my wife, and then we moved to the United States, as she was studying for her PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. I enrolled in graduate school at Cornell, and during that time, I realized what I loved the most was to be out in the field. Then, I found a position with TNC doing restoration work. I’ve now been with TNC since 2003.  

Kankakee Sands-Illinois is known for its oak savannas. How is prescribed fire used to restore these ecosystems?  

To stay healthy, oak savannas need fire every two to three years, and, in addition to that, most of these forests have been fire suppressed, so there’s an overaccumulation of fuels and understory species. That means there are shrubs and trees coming up and, in many instances, lots of invasive species. A fire can help with invasives, but it’s not going to entirely get rid of them. For that, mechanical removal of invasive plant species is needed to speed up the restoration process of those imperiled forests. 

What are some of your long-term goals for the preserve?  

We need to be invested in these places in perpetuity. Owning a natural area is like owning a house: You need to change the roof, fix the toilet when it breaks, clean the gutters. You need to know that restoration management work is a long-term investment, and that the work is never really done.  

Philip Juras is drawn to painting tallgrass prairies because they challenge him to capture the diversity of native grasses and other atmospheric qualities of the horizontal landscape. But as a trained prescribed fire volunteer who had helped conduct fires at TNC’s Nachusa Grasslands Preserve, Juras also wants his stunning works to be a gateway for viewers to understand the history and value of conserving natural environments.

What was it like painting prescribed fires at Nachusa?

Thanks to TNC’s team in Illinois, I’ve painted burns at Nachusa on three visits. Previous to that, most of my fire experience had been in the more enclosed setting of woodlands in Georgia. I rarely got to see a completely unobstructed smoke column. At Nachusa I had a clear view of fast-moving prairie fires interacting with the wide-open sky and could explore that aesthetically. When I wasn’t painting, I was helping the burn team to make sure the fire got executed effectively and safely.

I hope to return to do at least a few more paintings. If it’s during fire season, all the better.

How has being a wildland firefighter influenced the landscapes you paint, particularly your depictions of prescribed burns on Midwestern prairies?

Being trained in prescribed fire allows me to be right in the action, directly connected to the phenomenon itself. When a fire has the wind behind it and is coming my way, I have to be 100% engaged and attentive.

I have a very mobile setup, so I can paint, pick up and move back 50 feet when the flames are coming toward me or follow behind them when they move away. When the fire is creeping, I can complete a small study in 30 to 45 minutes. But other times, the fire moves at a walking speed or faster, and I’ll have just a few minutes to try to capture it. After I move to a safe spot, I can take another 15 or 20 minutes to remember what I saw and finish the painting.

With such a short period of time, I have to focus on the most important elements, such as composition and color, rather than details. As a painter, it can be very freeing. I try to bring that energy to the studio when I work on larger, more detailed paintings.