Fire and Destruction - to Rescue the Ecosystem
Illinois Beach, Saturday, December 14, 2024
We burned a dozen or so massive piles of big bad logs. It was hard work - following a long walk to a normally forbidden savanna - one of the most biodiversity-rich and beautiful places in Illinois.
For two years now, the Illinois Beach volunteers have been tackling priorities. Crown vetch, over-dense pole trees, and more. Until recently the pine log piles seemed too great. See that savanna grove in the distance (below)? It once was black oak savanna with rich plant and animal diversity.
Then it got invaded by Austrian pines. They had been killing biodiversity here for 130 years. For the miserable results, and the beginnings of recovery, see some of the photos below.
On November 11th, 2024, seven chain saws started the rescue. We didn't burn the enormous wood piles that day because of conditions too hot and dry for a bonfire surrounded by miles of prairie and savanna grass.
Illinois Beach is home to more than 60 Endangered or Threatened species - and also to quite a few very destructive invasive species. We combat them with tenderness or chainsaw violence, as the species demands.
One of those killer species, Austrian pine, continues its evil, even after it's dead:
On Nov. 11th, seventeen people crossed the Dead River, then into the normally off-limits savanna. Chain saws and miscellaneous equipage were piled into two vehicles. (Vehicles are restricted to the main Illinois Beach trail and then to the beach itself, where waves and wind will erase their tracks.)
One long term goal is to rid the site of dead invasive pines. They'd been recognized as a threat to biodiversity for decades.
Rotting bark and wood change the soil and kill the diversity. Rare and endangered species of animals and plants vanish.
Six chain sawyers sliced the logs into pieces small enough that the strongest among us could put them into the piles. Teamwork was key.
Chainsaw heroes of that day:
Melissa Grycan, Department of Natural Resources staff
John McMartin, volunteer
Noah Hornak, volunteer
Ed Teixeira, volunteer
Julia McEvoy, volunteer
Joe Handwerker, volunteer
Allen Giedraitis, volunteer
Lugging and piling heroes of the day:
Sharon Rosenzweig, volunteer
Ashley Wold, volunteer
Zoe Raines, volunteer
Rickie Peacock, volunteer
Eriko Kojima, volunteer
Jerome McDonald, volunteer
Chris McMartin, volunteer
Kerry Swift, volunteer
Stephen Packard, volunteer
In part because of the long walk, the stewards had scheduled an especially long day, we had lunch:
After lunch on November 11th, we went back to work. Sandhill cranes called in the distance.
On December 14th, we continued to cut and pile. But finally we could burn.
We stopped and watched for a while, and then went back to work.
As we worked a merlin flew by, then a rough-legged hawk. This place is rich with uncommon species, even in late fall and winter.
What will surprise us next? We'll report here.
Endnote
The Illinois Nature Preserves System became a world model when launched in the 1960s. Inspiringly ambitious, it has accomplished wonders, but has been disgracefully underfunded. As pointed out above, Melissa Grycan has responsibility for more than 26,000 acres, much like her counterparts around the state. They all need more support staff as competent and fine as Melissa. They also need more contract funds. But the challenges and potentials are so great that even then biodiversity conservation will need us volunteers to do our parts of this important work, in collaboration with those important staff. Melissa had to leave halfway through the day, to supervise a burn at another site. On most of our workdays, she doesn't come at all. She's needed elsewhere and trusts expert volunteers to know what we're doing, as we've spent considerable time collaborating and planning with her and other experts at this site.
Conservation budgets are catastrophically small. The Nature Preserve System is losing whole ecosystems and the quality areas of others are shrinking, when they could be recovering and expanding. Communities of volunteers, volunteer experts, and volunteer leaders are a growing force to help meet the need, coordinated at many sites by Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves.
Other Illinois Beach Posts
The logs do not catch fire and burn during prescribed burns because prescribed burning has not been done when fire conditions were favorable enough. Prescribed burns tend not to be done during very favorable fire conditions.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if "Anonymous" knows much about the specifics of this site, but the questions they raise are significant. It's likely true that most burns today occur at milder intensity than over millions of years past. Lightning fires would spread fastest (and thus cover the most ground) in the hottest, driest, windiest conditions. Fires applied by Native Americans for various purposes were likely more varied in intensity for the past few millennia.
DeleteBurns today are limited by many factors. We need to be good neighbors to nearby businesses, institutions, and homes. Mistakes could shut down whole burn programs. Burn managers deserve great credit and thanks for their efforts to make prescribed burns as save and effective as possible. Better public understanding of the needs for burns would also help.
As for the burnability of the logs at Illinois Beach south of Dead River, they're on dry dunes that build up little thatch, and the sparse flammable vegetation decreases as you get closer to the logs because pine needles, or acid from decaying branches, or something else limits plant growth. To my eye, there's often not enough fuel to ignite the logs under any practical burn conditions.
That said, I too believe that it would be better for many sites - as burn managers get increasingly experienced and expert - to burn under more effective conditions than those often selected.
Science has shown that occasional intense fire is needed to reduce canopy cover and maintain the grasses typical in the groundlayer that characterize savanna.
Deletehttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S037811270800546X
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112711005287
Julianne Mason also did a post on the topic on the Grassland Restoration Network.
https://grasslandrestorationnetwork.org/2024/12/03/prescribed-burn-monitoring-fire-intensity-and-vegetation-community-changes/
Increasing fire intensity comes with increased risks. The surrogate has been labor intensive chainsawing and herbiciding. A method that can only be applied to a small fraction of lands needing management with the resources that are available. These are the facts. Others have the difficult decision on when they will burn and how resources should be allocated.
DeleteFire intensity effects on pre-existing woody vegetation vs. integrity of herbaceous old growth are two different matters. Increased fire intensity also has increased risks for herbaceous flora, fauna, and biological crusts. Generally, I think, we have to rely on mechanical/chemical methods to remove woody vegetation, do so in ways that maximize vs. impair recovery of herbaceous vegetation (and crusts in parts of sand savannas with sparse herbaceous vegetation) vs. try to use intense fire, which might have been something old growth herbaceous and terricolous lichen communities could recover from in 1500, but not so much in our fragmented, high N deposition, high seed dispersal from not-so-good-stuff, climate change environment.
Delete]
Dlcarterksa I’ve seen what happens to conservative sod when canopy closure occurs. The groundlayer is eliminated. The regular fires that are being conducted are what ecologists call “ineffective.” The paper, “Canopy Cover and Groundlayer Vegetation Dynamics in a Fire Managed Eastern Savanna” reports positive outcomes to herbaceous and sod forming species after more intense and repeated fire.
Delete“Mechanical/chemical methods to remove woody vegetation” are still needed. For example, to control common buckthorn, glossy buckthorn, invasive Lonicera, and aggressive native species. However, “mechanical/chemical methods” will never be able to replace the need for intense fire if fire adapted habitats are to be maintained.
I'm not saying chemical and mechanical methods replace fire. Quite the opposite. But intense fire.... Yes. Yes, they should replace the intense fire that kills native bunchgrasses and replaces them with Andropogon and Sorghastrum or that stimulates heavy Rhus germination? No, I think fire should be very frequent (so it is, if anything, fuel vs. ingition-limited) and dormant. I suppose there are different dimensions of intensity. Red flag days wouldn't do much damage in the dormant season where there isn't multiple years of fuel built up.
DeleteAlso go back and look at especially the last paragraph of that paper. It is frequent fire that keeps brush in check. Large trees are another matter, but it much easier to deal with over-dense oak than brush invasions, esp. gray dogwood or buckthorn (and all the associated soil changes that occur with it). When you strart getting into the fires that kill those trees, there can be all sorts of undesireable effects and ecosystems can absolutely be maintained with low intensity fire and cutting or girdling the occasional unwanted big tree. This links to a photo of a site that had a lot going for it, but had probably too much oak, but now it is probably beyond hope. https://prairiebotanist.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/figure-6.jpeg
Deletedlcarterksu Also from “Canopy Cover And Groundlayer Vegetation Dynamics in a Fire Managed Eastern Sand Savanna.”
Delete“In general, lower fire frequency and reduced fire intensity allow a shift toward more closed canopy woodland, causing decline of light-dependent species and increase of shade-tolerant species; while higher fire frequency and greater intensity cause a shift toward more open canopy savanna, and increase of shade-intolerant species (Bowles and McBride, 1998, Bray, 1958, Faber-Langendoen and Davis, 1995, Haney et al., 2008).”
Video: Prescribed Fire During Droughts, Impacts From High-Intensity Fire Experiments
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQtC7uuG_8E
This is a video made in Texas. However, it is educational about the effects of different intensities of fire.
dlcarterksu What was at the site with “a lot going for it, but had probably too much oak …” that now looks to be full of sumac?
DeleteCongratulations on encouraging and accomplishing the removal of the non-native pines planted years ago. Illinois Beach Nature Preserve is a fine site and is being enhanced by the cutting and burning piles of the non-native pines. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations - this makes my heart so happy. Thank you so much for all you do!
ReplyDelete