Prescribed Fire

Oak sprouts 2 months after prescribed fire Hoosier National Forest. Photo By USDA Forest Service

Prescribed burning is the planned application of fire used to meet specific resource management goals. Land managers realize the importance of returning fire to the landscape, which helps maintain ecosystem diversity. Fire has had an appreciable and beneficial impact on the Midwestern landscape since prehistoric times.

Why We Use Prescribed Fire

Improve Vegetative Health

Forest Service personnel use a drip torch to apply fire at Peggy Hollow in 2019. Photo By USDA Forest Service

America’s native vegetation is threatened by a plague of invasive and exotic insects and plants that have entered the country through foreign trade. When used with other treatments, burning may help control or eliminate many of these species. Seed production and vigor of native plants can be increased through burning as well.

Maintain Wildlife Habitat

Fire exclusion has resulted in the loss of wildlife habitat, a decline in species diversity and the accumulation of hazardous fuels. Many wildlife species that are in decline require early successional habitat, grass and shrubby areas, for some or all portions of their lives. This habitat type produces seed and insect food sources, in addition to cover not found in mature forest settings. New sprouts resulting from periodic burning are more palatable and higher in nutrient content.

Fire is used in these habitats to top-kill woody vegetation and stimulate grass and forb growth. Without fire as a disturbance agent, these habitats would quickly fill in with trees, thus losing their value to the wildlife dependent on them such as bobwhite quail, wild turkey, Monarch butterfly, Henslow’s sparrow, woodcock, etc.

In forested areas, fire is used to encourage fire adapted species. These species, chiefly oak and hickory, provide excellent food for wildlife in the form of nuts and acorns, and are a preferred food crop for deer, wild turkey, and squirrels. Some Neotropical migratory birds, song birds that migrate from Central America to the Midwest to breed, are dependent on oak and hickory trees that harbor insects they feed on. Furthermore, oak and hickory ecosystems are more resilient to a changing climate, thus ensuring habitat availability into the future.

Restore Oak-Hickory Woodland, Glade, and Barren Ecosystems

Within the Hoosier National Forest are unique areas where woodland and glade natural communities intermingle, often called barrens.  These barrens communities are considered globally imperiled and are home to a multitude of rare and endemic species.  Barrens are unique as they contain a diverse array of plants from both prairie and forest ecosystems.  These communities once thrived but fire exclusion has allowed for trees to encroach and shade out the herbaceous prairie plants.  Currently 47 invertebrate species are known to rely on these ecosystems.  Active barren restoration is currently underway using prescribed burning as the tool of choice.   

Reduce Wildfire Fuels

Annual vegetation, tree leaves, and downed trees all provide fuel for wildfires.  Over time these fuels build up to levels that, under dry conditions, can result in catastrophic wildfires. Periodic prescribed burning under desirable conditions reduces fuel loading which lowers the risk of fast moving wildfires that can threaten people, wildlife and property.

Information for Forest Neighbors

U.S. Forest Service fire managers work closely with the National Weather Service to determine the best days to burn to achieve desired goals and to maximize safety. Many specific conditions must be met for a burn to occur, including fuel moisture, wind speed and direction, and relative humidity, among other factors. Decisions are generally made the day of the burn once parameters have been measured or forecasted. Therefore advance specific notification for a particular burn can be difficult. Forest staff notifies the public in the immediate area of the prescribed burn.

The public is advised to check the forest’s social media accounts and website for announcements of burns. We use a service called IciWeb to distribute georeferenced maps of the burn areas along with additional details about specific burns. Designated burn areas will not be accessible to the public on the day of the burn and for some time after the burn until the area is considered safe. If there are any hazards identified within the burn area, the area may be inaccessible for several days for public safety. Burning may affect access to hunting areas.

For your safety, please contact the Indiana Interagency Coordination Center dispatch at (812) 547-9262 if you plan to hunt or camp in or near prescribed burn areas. Forest neighbors who wish to be notified of a specific date of a burn, or those who wish to report medical conditions that could be affected by smoke, may contact the Indiana Interagency Coordination Center Dispatcher at (812) 547-9262.

Prehistoric and Historic Fire

Historic Fire frequency across the United StatesInfographic By USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station, Guyette 2012.

One of the most useful tools Native Americans utilized was fire. Since the melting of the last glaciers, approximately 12,000 years ago, native fire and natural evolution worked hand-in-hand to shape the landscape found by European settlers less than 500 years ago. Woodland Native American cultures practiced a form of agriculture in which portions of a forest would be cleared and burned to create open areas for agriculture, then often allowed to regenerate back into woodland.

In the area now encompassed by the Hoosier National Forest, the landscape was once a mosaic of open forest stands (woodlands) dominated by fire-adapted species such as oak and hickory, croplands near settlements, abandoned clearings of young regenerating woodlands, and prairie. Native Americans benefited from fire by creating land rich with both wild plant and animal food sources, reduced insects, and an opportunity for the cultivation of crops. On average, fires occurred at least every 8-12 years prior to European settlement.

The overuse of fire by European settlers in an attempt to create permanent agricultural openings for grazing and cultivation, in combination with widespread timber harvest and along with unsustainable farming practices, resulted in disastrous conditions over much of the landscape. Fire exclusion followed in the early to mid-1900s. Over time, the combination and timing of these practices resulted in drastic changes to our local ecology.

Prescribed Fire Successes on the Hoosier National Forest

Today, the thoughtful application of prescribed burning is applied to our ecosystems to restore balance and allow for fire-adapted species, such as oak, hickory, and native grasses/forbs, to once again play their important role in southern Indiana.

The Forest’s prescribed burning efforts have been marked by many successes including:

• Detection and promotion of 47 new to science and rare insect species that exist nowhere else in Indiana, or only in isolated sites in nearby states
• Re-establishment of oak-hickory forest and woodland that would have otherwise regenerated to beech and maple
• Restoration and maintenance of the globally rare Barrens Community that sustains rare insects adapted to the fire dependent ecosystem.

2024 Planned Prescribed Fires:

Maps