Hard-hitting Headfire - a video captures it

As this 51-second video unfolds, Dave, Eriko, and Jo have happy smiles on their faces. They've spent more than two and a half hours putting in the backfire and the sidefires for this 158-acre burn. Once they're secure and the headfire shown in the video is lit, the human work is done, and the powerful - seemingly unstoppable (but see Endnote 1) - force of fire takes over.

Here, on March 10, 2025, Dave ignites the headier with a rake (see Endnote 2). The fire trailing behind him for its first half a minute is barely noticeable. But watch what happens next.  

Dave is pulling a rake of burning grass. The fire behind him is minimal, at first. But bits of burning grass fall off, starting little fires - and the rake picks up more grass as it goes - which then starts to burn and fall off in pieces - starting little fires every foot or two as he walks. He mostly just hikes the north edge of the trail, but he veers off a bit to avoid some areas where the grass along the trail is thin.

Next, our eyes are drawn to the increasingly intense fire that runs with the wind from the little flames Dave ignites. It's this raging fire that does the work the preserve needs. 

But, for contrast, watch the video again, and focus on the little fires which continue burning back toward the trail, flames just a few inches tall - a good contrast between a backfire and a headfire. 

Illinois Beach hosts one of the finest, largest, and most important remnant natural areas in the state. More than sixty endangered species populations depend on these savanna, prairie, and wetland habitats - as do thousands of other species of rare animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and more. Parts of these habitats have been under-burned and suffering, ecologically, because of lack of resources. (See Endnote 3.)

The evidence of degradation due to that lack of resources is widespread. Growing patches of such aliens as buckthorn, crown vetch,  and Japanese silverberry are only a part of the problem. Overabundant native woody species are the bigger part; they grow so dense that they shade out the grassland matrix on which this savanna depends. These out-of-balance species include grape, ash, aspen, and even oak. 

Thus those black oaks with persistent dead leaves exploding into fire represent some of the most important work that this burn is accomplishing. The oaks, like the grasses, are key to this ecosystem, but they need fire to keep them in balance. Many of these oaks will be "top-killed" by this fire, but they'll all re-sprout. Savanna oaks often live for long periods of time as "grubs" - or repeatedly re-sprouting oak bushes. The bigger oaks and some of the smaller ones will continue to grow larger. 

The crew that gets the credit for this fire consisted of one excellent burn boss from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources supervising a dozen folks in two teams (of mostly volunteers) from Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves. The 360 degrees of fire breaks added up to 2.4 miles, all carefully walked and tended by the two crews (one for the east half of the perimeter and one for the west). (See Endnote 4.) There will be another, longer post on the compelling details on this and another burn that we did on the same day - "coming soon" on this blog. 

Endnotes

Endnote 1.

This fire looks ferocious. Is it now unstoppable? Given the mix of loose sands, dense brush, and wetlands, it's probably not stoppable with vehicles. But there's a way to stop it. The answer is to fight fire with fire, that is, build a controlled backfire down wind. If we wanted to stop it, we'd go to a deer path or trail or road or whatever was handy and set a line of those little backfires that looked so mild on the video. We'd use rakes, water, and flappers to keep those fires from going downwind.  That fire would back slowly toward the coming headfire and use up the fuel. If needed, for speed, we might light a serious of close, parallel strip fires - from firebreak to firebreak - and when the headfire reached the line of no fuel, it would just go out. 

Endnote 2.

Igniting with a rake seems old-fashioned to some. Most crews use a drip torch. But some of us find rakes to have advantages in some situations. They're lighter to carry on a long day. They never run out of fuel or get plugged up. The lessen the amount of petrochemicals being deposited in the ecosystem. And when you're not igniting, that same rake is useful to reduce fuel around benches, signs, and certain young trees or shrubs, which we may want to spare from the burn for various reasons. 

Endnote 3.

The Friends of Illinois Nature Preserves assembled in 2019 because our Nature Preserves System, long a global model, was deteriorating from lack of sufficient staff, contract funding, and volunteers. The Friends work through education, advocacy, and training and empowering volunteers - especially expert volunteer leaders.

This burn was a good example. Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) heritage biologist Melissa Grycan, the logical person to lead today's burn, was required to be in central Illinois to burn another needy preserve on that prime day. There are more than 600 Nature Preserves, most of which need controlled burns, and only a handful of active burn bosses among the State staff. 

March 10th had the best burn weather in months, and Melissa trusted the Friends crew sufficiently that she did the work of rounding up Division of Forestry burn boss Dave Griffith, to be staff leader on the team today. He and the whole team deserve credit and thanks. Two certified Friends burn bosses were in the crew today, and more staff and volunteer burn bosses are in training - today for example. Many of the volunteers working and getting experience today may well become much needed burn leaders. And it will be a great growing season for the cherished ecosystem at Illinois Beach. 

Endnote 4.

An aerial photo showing the extent of the burn.

The principal (easy) firebreaks were the park road to the north, a wide trail to the northeast, Lake Michigan to the southeast, a park trail on the south, Dead River to the southwest, and the Dead River Trail and Nature Center parking lot and entrance road on the northwest. 

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Rebeccah Hartz, Jo Sabbath, Kathy Garness and Amy Doll for proofing and edits.