Management

Prescribed burning on priority landscapes

Mark Twain National Forest prescribed burn program focuses treatment on priority landscapes to meet goals and objectives stated in the 2005 Land & Resource Management Plan. Approximately a quarter million acres (16% of total Forest acres) are designated as priority burn acres. 

These are the acres that the Forest intends to manage into the future, with prescribed burning as part of the treatment, to create and maintain sustainable, healthy, woodland and glade natural communities. Most have already had at least one, and probably several, prescribed burn treatments over the past two decades. Each burn unit is on a schedule to be burned approximately every 2-5 years at the beginning of treatment, and approximately every 3-10 years in the maintenance phase.

Each year, the Mark Twain National Forest will conduct prescribed burns on an average of 30,000 acres (within the 244,410 acre footprint of priority landscapes). Each individual unit is on a recurring schedule of prescribed burning every 2-5 years or every 3-10 years depending on its progress in meeting vegetative objectives. Most of the units within the 244,410 acres have already been burned at least once, and many have been under a burn rotation for 15-20 years.