Prairie Burn Promotes Ecological Diversity and Cultural Preservation

Knox College's annual prairie burn brought together students and faculty as they set a controlled fire to the prairie land at Green Oaks Biological Field Station. The 12 Students, along with Associate Professor of  Art Tony Gant, assisted Professor of Biology Stuart Allison in setting the fires. 

The annual burns aim to protect prairie grasses from intrusions of woodland scrub and competition with exotic species that have been introduced to Illinois from other regions or countries.

Allison commented that in addition to ecological benefits of restoring and enhancing native Midwestern prairies, there's an important cultural dimension to the controlled burns.

"One of the reasons we have prairies and not just trees in Illinois, at the time of European settlement, is because Native Americans had been burning continuously for four to five thousand years," said Allison, speaking at this year's burn in late March.

"Prairie grasses and trees are competitors," he explained, as a dozen Knox students set fire to the sections of restored prairie at Green Oaks.

"In Illinois, there's enough moisture that trees would eventually encroach many of the prairies and shade them out. Further west, it's so dry that trees can't take over. But if you're going to maintain prairie in Illinois, you're definitely going to have burning." 

According to Allison, who holds the Watson Bartlett Professorship in biology and conservation, controlled burns simulate the natural fires that originally resulted in the Midwestern tallgrass prairies. Much of the Illinois prairie has now been erased by settlement, agriculture, and development.

"We're maintaining that tradition of burning prairies, keeping them open. It's both an ecological and a cultural activity," Allison said.