Prescribed Fire Season Underway in NWI
The Nature Conservancy is planning to conduct prescribed fires this spring at several preserves located in East Chicago, Hammond and Gary, depending upon weather conditions.
In Gary’s west-side, 16.3 acres are scheduled to be burned at the Ivanhoe Dune & Swale Nature Preserve, adjacent to Hobart and Hamlin Streets, and north of 5th Avenue. In Hammond, 35.7 total acres are scheduled to burn on a tract owned by TNC just north of the Indiana Toll Road and west of Cline Avenue. In East Chicago, 52.5 acres are scheduled to be burned just north of the Grand Calumet River and west of Cline Avenue.
These sites all have ongoing ecological restoration projects funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative through the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the USEPA. The prescribed burn of grasses, forbs and leaf litter helps halt successional growth such as woody shrubs and trees and revives globally rare oak savanna habitat present on the preserves.
Fire also reduces biomass on the ground, which can smother prairie species such as coreopsis, blazing star and butterfly milkweed. Most importantly, these planned burns can help prevent disastrous wildfires from impacting nearby homes and neighborhoods.
Exacting conditions must exist for burns to take place, making it difficult to list specific dates. Conditions requiring rigorous review right up to the point of ignition, include:
- Winds and other atmospheric conditions must quickly lift and disperse smoke;
- Fuel moisture must be dry, and humidity must be low, but not too dry or low;
- Trained wildlands fire teams must understand how certain plants will respond to fire;
- Potential impacts to traffic and homes must be assessed.
Attempts will be made the morning of a burn to personally notify adjacent landowners.
