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Serious questions regarding burning!

to J. A. Raasch

Now if your question had been in regard to a prairie planting, I 
would have said burn as often as you desire and can get it to ignite 
in order to establish that vegetation and get the weeds out.

However, if this is a true remnant, and especially if it is isolated by 
more than a few tens of meters from other remnants, then I would 
say emphatically that you should not burn it again this coming 
year, nor preferably for several years, and then not in its entirety. 
Manage woody invasion, and your sweet clover and brome 
problems with carefully timed mowing and judicious use of 
herbicides. Consider haying it just as the brome flowers to weaken 
it and to remove any seed that would be produced. This will also 
catch the seet clover as it tries to flower. 

Sadly, by burning the whole remnant (if that is in fact what 
happened) you may already have done serious damage to the 
invertebrate fauna harbored in the remnant. The fauna of our 
remnants is very precious, since that's the only place where it 
occurs. Most of the remnant-dependent species NEVER colonize 
prairie plantings without help, and thus far, introduction efforts have 
been few, far between, and of limited success. The key here is that 
prairie remnants are not just a bunch of pretty plants, but a whole 
community, and with SO little of this type of community left on the 
planet, we must be very careful in managing them. 

James C. Trager

On 22 Aug 00, at 13:33, J. A. Raasch wrote:

> Hello from SW Wisconsin:
> 
> We burned a 2-acre prairie remnant last spring and I have a few
> questions regarding whether we should burn again next spring. The core
> of the remnant responded very well; we noticed a few new species
> blooming and no major weed problems.  Around this core, the burning
> removed quite a bit of thatch and reduced the population of sweet
> clover reaching flowering stage . (Eurasian thistles are another
> matter , but we are coping.) We have two potential problems...
> 
> (1) There are scattered patches of first-year sweet clover, probably
> stimulated by the burn. I'd like to burn again next spring -- when the
> plants are most vulnerable -- to prevent them from flowering.  I think
> thepopulation of sweet clover would then be reduced to a level we can
> control by cutting or pulling future flowering plants.
> 
> (2) In some areas, however, the ground is bare between clumps of brome
> grass. With few natives in these areas to replace the fire-sensitive
> grasses, I'm afraid further burning will only expose ground to
> invasion by weeds. Do you agree? I'm inclined to spread locally
> gathered seed this fall and leave the entire 2-acres alone for a few
> years.
> 
> You might notice a conflict here. Do I burn again to knock down the
> population of sweet clover, but possibly exposing more ground  to
> invasion by other weeds? Or do I seed bare areas this fall and
> tolerate the clover until more native plants are present ? I think
> there is too much overlap to treat the areas differently.
> 
> Thank you for any suggestions.
> 
> John Raasch
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> J. A. Raasch
> University of Wisconsin - Madison
> Plant Biotechnology Laboratory
> UWBC 425 Henry Mall
> Madison, WI   53706
> 
> Phone: 608-265-4485
> E-mail: jaraasch@facstaff.wisc.edu
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