As the chilly winter winds finally start to clear out, warmth begins to creep back into Middleton. Buds and sprouts peek through the soil, the sun is shining bright and the trees become green once more. What a beautiful time spring is — until everything burns to the ground.
A burnt grassland is not an uncommon sight for Wisconsinites. Throughout much of the state, including familiar locations like Pheasant Branch Conservancy and Tiedeman’s Pond, prescribed burns are routinely implemented in prairie fields, wetlands and other habitats. But, what are the benefits of prescribed burning? What even is prescribed burning, and how did the practice begin in the first place?
History
In pre-settlement Wisconsin, landscape fires occurred much more frequently than they do in the present day. Oftentimes, wildfires were started by lightning strikes and would then burn for days, eating up tens of thousands of acres. But, the terms “wildfire” and “prescribed burn” are not interchangeable. Prescribed burning, unlike a wildfire, is an intentional and controllable activity that is done for purposes of management.
Fires were also set by Native Americans. They used fire for purposes of war, preparing settlements and hunting, as fire was a good way to attract game species. The practice continued for thousands of years.
Then, in the early 1800s, European settlers arrived in Wisconsin. They displaced Native Americans from their land, forcing them onto reservations or further West. Unlike the Native peoples, these settlers did not utilize fire very extensively. In fact, when fires occurred naturally — often due to lightning strikes — settlers often worked to suppress and destroy the fires. With European settlement came the rapid disappearance of fire from the Wisconsin landscape.
However, after thousands of years of repeated burnings, many plants and ecosystems were now dependent upon fire’s role in the environment. Among these were — and are — native prairies, oak openings, oak barrens and pine barrens. Regular burning was therefore reintroduced to Wisconsin habitats with conservation efforts in the form of prescribed burns, as early as the 1940s in locations like the Madison Arboretum.
Benefits for Plants
When prairies and other habitats are given prescribed burns, there are a myriad of benefits for plants in the area. For one, burning helps reduce populations of invasive and pest plant species. After thousands of years of being burnt, native plants are adapted to fire. In particular, many plants have developed roots and buds that reach deep into the soil, allowing them to withstand fire’s heat.
Many invasive plants, on the other hand, lack the long roots needed to survive, as they did not exist in Wisconsin when fires were commonplace. As a result, prescribed burning selects native plants over invasive ones, thus removing harmful ecosystemic competition and allowing them to thrive.

Additionally, in the absence of fire, leaf litter, brush, grass and other dead plant material accumulate on the ground. Prescribed burns force this material to quickly decompose, and the nitrogen and other nutrients within it are recycled back into the soil. This helps the growth of all plants in the ecosystem.
The removal of plant litter is also beneficial in that it creates greater areas of open ground. Bare ground creates increased seed-to-soil contact — the amount of soil a seed is touching — for plant species, in addition to simply making room for new plants to grow. This is important because more seed-to-soil contact improves the stability of young plants, and all benefits of open systems are particularly vital for ecosystems with a history of fire — their communities now require the open habitats burning creates.
Benefits for Animals
Many of prescribed burning’s benefits to plants are directly linked to those of animals. The native plants which benefit from growth after burning include flowering herbaceous plants that white-tailed deer eat. Burning thus provides these deer a greater source of food, doing the same for tens if not hundreds of other species across the state.
Similarly, an abundance of wildflowers from prescribed burns attracts many insects and invertebrates. Even when a habitat has only just been burnt, insects come to warm in the heat stored by black ash. Insects are an important food source of grassland birds, so their presence allows these bird species to thrive. Improved health in birds provides benefits that carry up the rest of the food chain as well.

The open pockets in habitats that prescribed burning creates and maintains are also beneficial for wildlife. Open pockets made in water among cattails improve habitat for waterfowl, and areas of bare ground aid many ground-foraging birds as well as herbivorous small mammals. Habitat conditions are also improved in that the growth of prairie grass is stimulated by fires, creating an ideal environment for upland game and waterfowl to feed and reproduce. Improvement in native grass and vegetable growth is also beneficial for grassland nesting birds and songbirds.
Finally, prescribed burning protects animals by preventing larger, more dangerous wildfires in the future. By burning away accumulated leaf litter as well as tree limbs and other dead organic material on the ground, prescribed burns eliminate fuel for a more destructive wildfire to occur.
Today
Today, prescribed burns are used in a variety of states and habitats in the United States, not just Wisconsin. In an effort to reduce the number and intensity of wildfires, a growing issue in America, the U.S. Forest Service also plans to increase its use of prescribed burns in coming years.
Springtime is currently a common time for controlled burning to occur, as its conditions are generally most reliable for prescribed fires. Necessary temperature, humidity, wind direction, wind speed, the state of fuel and other conditions required for safe prescribed burning are more frequently met during this season. However, to attain numerous positive effects, conservation officials in locations like Pheasant Branch Conservancy carry out prescribed burning at other times of year, as well. Burns in the fall, for example, have the benefit of not harming newly-emerging plants and better facilitate the movement of amphibians and reptiles to upland habitats.
Of course, no matter the time of year, it can always be a little disappointing to see a blanket of ash where there once were plants. Yet, behind this ash, there is an effort to protect the habitat that is seemingly destroyed. Both plants and animals alike are helped by fire and prescribed burning, as they have been for thousands of years.
And while the burnt prairie might seem a sad scene for a brief period of time, afterward, habitats can grow back just as healthy and thriving as before.
For more information on prescribed burning in Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources provides a comprehensive set of information on the topic. Much of the content in this article was sourced from the DNR, and it remains a premier resource for any member of the public who is interested in this topic.