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The U.S. Forest Service has begun spring prescribed burns when weather and conditions allow within the two-million-acre portion of the Superior National Forest (prescribed burns in the Boundary Waters Canoe are planned separately).
Prescribed burning often has a narrow window of opportunity, as it is usually conducted in the spring and fall before green up and after green vegetation has died off and vegetation is more combustible.
The Forest Service has prescribed fire plans developed to burn 6,947 acres; however, burning depends on many factors such as weather and vegetation conditions, fire staff availability, and other considerations. Early spring drought has also reduced prescribed burning opportunities.
“Fire is natural, and it needs to be part of the solution. Putting fire back on the landscape will rejuvenate areas needed for indigenous people to exercise their treaty rights by creating better habitat to hunt and gather and improve forest conditions. We have been burning in this area and across the nation for centuries and we know it works,” said Wildfire Operations Specialist Damon Panek.
“We were able to do a select few prescribed burns for oak blueberry habitat improvement last month, and now are waiting until conditions improve to do the meadow burns and other burn treatments such as under-burning and broadcast burning. Under-burning is low-intensity and targets the forest floor vegetation like brush and small trees. Broadcast burning is a more moderate burning technique applying fire to specific areas to meet desired conditions for forest health objectives. We’d like to use all these options for prescribed burning for specific units to reduce excess fuel build-up,” said Nick Petrack, Superior and Chippewa National Forests Fire Management Officer.
Types of prescribed fire projects Under-burning is a low intensity fire that burns beneath the canopy of live trees. The understory materials that would be consumed include small down, dead, woody material and live forbs, shrubs and seedlings. Some live mature trees may be burned, but the intent is to maintain the forest canopy.
Broadcast burning is a prescribed burning activity where fire is applied generally to most or all of an area within well-defined boundaries for reduction of fuel hazard, as a resource management treatment; or both burn intensity varies throughout the treatment unit depending on vegetation, fuels, and topography. These burns create a new stand at the young age class. However, unburned areas or lightly burned areas within the unit may be common.
