Woodland Burn at Moraine Hills - March 21, 2026 - in videos and photos

This was a good burn to learn from. It also did a ton of ecological good for a rare and important site. Such burns don't just happen. It took a lot of good work to get to the photo below:

We started the day with a brief intro and some training (especially for those of us new to burning) as we put on our fire-resistant Nomex clothing: 

The crew consisted of nine Restore Moraine volunteers, some never on a burn before. So we started out with the basics (as shown in the diagrams below) and how to use the tools. The key person here, still in a tee-shirt, is Illinois Natural Heritage Biologist and accredited burn boss Melissa Grycan. For more about how she led and taught, see Endnote 1.) 

The biggest worry of the day was the possibility of the fire escaping into hundreds of acres of adjacent cat-tail marshes, which are also burned on purpose sometimes, but which with today's winds would smoke out nearby roads. Then we drove from the Maintenance Yard to the woodland. 

Here we made specific plans and assignments for the day and divided into two groups, each with a crew chief. But while we're together, the glorious crew deserving credit for the day consists of (from left) Tony Tucker, Jordan Botezatu, Ali Fakhari, Steve Schumacher, Mills Guanci, Eriko Kojima, Lana Fedewa, David Urbansky, Andy Delorenzo, and Melissa Grycan. 

First we walked the entire firebreak - 360 degrees - to double check. Although the break had been "leafblown" and raked a week earlier, winds had scattered leaves across some parts, and the area above (with big cat-tail marsh immediately down wind today) looked like it could use a bit more work. 

Now, at 12:10 PM, Melissa lights the fire in a patch of leaves on which Lana has poured a bit of drip-torch fuel, to get the fire started on this somewhat cool and humid morning. Lana, Melissa, and half the crew will go clockwise around the break, lighting a continuous line of backfire (a fire that backs slowly into the wind). This backfire results in a fuel-free fire break.

David takes the other drip torch and leads the other half of the crew counter-clockwise, lighting a line of fire that will burn uphill through the thin fuel here. Most of the dead leaves have blown off this windswept morainal hillside. 

Here Tony makes sure the fire doesn't cross the break while Steve lights a second line of fire ... to widen the break ... and Eriko coaches Steve.

The goal of the crew in this video is to widen the burned-out break so that the bigger head fire, when it comes, will not be able to jump it. Here two wrinkles emerge. There are many big and little elements in most burns that may need adjustments or compensations. 

The first in this case is that the drip torch isn't working as it should. Burning drops of fuel (mostly diesel but some gasoline, which keeps it ignited) should be falling on the leaves and making a simple line of fire, as on the left. But with this third drip-torch, either too little fuel comes out, or too much. Probably it's clogged.  This torch will probably be replaced by another once Steve checks in with Melissa at the head of the line, but in the meantime, he makes the best of it. 

The second "element" that needs "adjustment" - at least as this observer sees it - is that Steve may be making this second line too far to the right. The video ends before Steve's strip head fire reaches its height, but it may be a little too vigorous for this early in the burn. A strip about two feet back from the backfire (instead of five or so) might have been better. A problem could occur when his little gradually-increasing head fire meets the backfire. At that point, the two fires tend to "jump up" with more vigor, and could send a few burning leaves across the break to start a new head fire where we don't want one. 

In the next video, David is lighting more backfire ... 

... but the camera pans away to show the other crew, in the distance, extending their line of backfire so as to increasingly encircle the burn area with "black" - that is,  safe - no leaves or grass left to burn.

Another interesting component of the above little video is that David (who's never used a drip torch before) listens to a suggestion from Jordan (who's been on one previous burn and used the drip torch once). Melissa's goal on an easy burn like this is to encourage people to listen, learn, observe carefully, and think. Burning needs more people who know what they're doing, and experience is a crucial teacher. Most new people get to use all the tools. On a more challenging burn, more experienced people would do all the most demanding jobs, and the rest would marvel at their skill, and learn even more. 

At this point we saw our only flower of the day. Hepatica. We burned it up. 

How late in the year is too late to burn? There's no easy answer. Last year's hepatica leaves are still green, as they were all winter. (See leaf to the left of the flower.) Theres no time to burn when you don't burn them.  This year's leaves are not up yet. The burn will not hurt the hepatica. It will help it and the many other rare and high-quality species here. 

Most burns take place during the dormant season. Eurasian bluegrasses stay green later in fall and green up earlier in spring than most fire-adapted vegetation. A serious pest, bluegrass is set back by early fall and late spring burns. The weakened bluegrass in some areas here will allow recovery of many species of biodiversity importance. This was a good time for a burn.

In the next video, the counter-clockwise crew is dealing with a dense stand of grass. They go slowly. Jordan extends the line a little farther while Ali sets another little line of fire to widen the break. Then they patiently wait for the fire to die down before they move ahead. 

At one point during this little video, the camera pans right where you can see the smoke of the clockwise crew rising. The next photo shows that crew, carefully working along, at this point lighting a side-fire. The plan unfolds.  

Finally, at 1:25 PM, one final video. An hour and fifteen minutes after we started, the two lines of fire come together, and the head fire burns with the wind. Even though oak woods fire usually has just two or three-foot flames at most (as opposed to 20 or 30-foot flames in a prairie fire), the head fire comes last because even this much of a fire would have been hard to control if we had not burned a wide, fuel-free fire break on the downwind side by backfiring. 

This burn was at Kettle-Moraine Nature Preserve at Moraine Hills State Park, owned and managed by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, with support of the Friends and the Restore Moraine volunteers. The footpath we used as a firebreak for this modest burn is about a mile long. We burned about 15 acres.

As a result of this excellent and easy work, one of the finest remnant oak woodlands in Illinois (see Endnote 2) will especially thrive and recover this year. As we walk the path, we'll compare the burned with the unburned sides, to observe differences and learn. The Moraine Hills bur and white oak woodlands have been on the path toward the recovery of full health and vitality for some time, and we expect it to make more big strides this year.

Endnote 1. How to Teach and Learn

Leaders like Melissa (and the Friends of Illinois Nature Preserve burn-boss mentors) are always thinking about training new leaders and other effective contributors. An intro, like the one Melissa gave at the start of this burn, seems primarily for those who are new to burning, but it is at least equally important to the ongoing in-service training of others who will become burn leaders in time. Expertise is promoted by hearing principles in various forms, as they apply to different sites and situations. 

After a second or third successful experience in some role, many people can be expected to be asked to mentor others or demonstrate some component of the training to them. People develop expertise: when strip fires may help, how to most effectively operate the water backpack, how to fill the drip torch, what is the best diesel/gasoline ratio under various conditions, how to best protect ourselves and each other from unnecessarily smoke, etc. Such participants gain not only technical expertise but also a cultural sense of the need to, and how to, help newer people learn. 

More fire and more burn leaders are needed. Our staff and volunteer burn capacity is too small, as is demonstrated by the ongoing losses of biodiversity and natural ecosystem quality in Nature Preserves. Many have deteriorated because of lack of ‘burn bosses’ and ‘crew chiefs. (It’s fairly easy to train new volunteers to do much of the needed work. What takes time and skill is training leaders.) 

In some areas, increasing numbers of new burners see themselves as being on the road to leadership in a community of expert stewards and burn practitioners. 

Some burn managers make an effort to have new burners on the team as often as possible. It helps everyone’s learning. This same approach is valuable in restoration generally: having new people join in at workdays week after week keeps things fresh, and everyone continues to learn with an open, questioning mind. When we don't have new people coming on a regular basis, we find, unfortunately, even in the most community-conscious settings, that the approach can become rigid and opinionated. In contrast, welcoming and training new people, and thinking about their questions, encourages all, including veteran participants, to embrace an open culture, continuously wanting to learn new things and improving current best practices. In recent years this growth-focused approach has been a real game changer that may expand capacity exponentially.

Endnote 2: How good is this woodland, and what saved the biodiversity here?

Like most other woodlands in the Midwest, this Moraine Hills Nature Preserve woodland had been damaged through over-grazing by fenced in livestock. Grazing by bison and elk had been very different; they came and went. Cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs were fenced in. Moreover, the numbers of native grazers was kept relatively low by such predators as wolves, mountain lions, bears, and, especially, Native American humans. Fenced in livestock wiped species out.

In parts of this oak woodland Nature Preserve today, little biodiversity is evident beyond the oaks. But miraculous patches here and there, often on steep slopes, are rich with diverse endangered and rare plant species. Other large areas appear to be on the road to recovery thanks to decades of staff and volunteer stewardship. A helpful 1996 evaluation compared this woodland to others in Illinois. Part is reprinted below. There were no very high or high quality (Grades A and B) of this community surviving. This good quality (Grade C remnant) was best of its kind. See the original under references.

Kettle Moraine Woodland, McHenry Co. (grade 

C best of type mesic Quercus rubra-Q.alba

woodland, (282.7 trees/ha, 45.5 m /ha basal area). 

This 30-acre woodland is the best known example

of a Quercus rubra-Q. alba woodland. This

structure apparently developed under post-

settlement fire protection, as the Public Land

Survey notes describe the area as a Quercus alba-

Q. velutina savanna, with 20.5 trees/ha. The site

was maintained by moderate grazing, which

reduced plot species richness but allowed survival

of a comparatively large number of native species.

The herb layer is dominated by Carex

pensylvanica. Fragaria virginiana, Allium

cernuum, Antennaria plantaginifolia, &

Amphicarpa bracteata. However, there are local

populations of prairie species such as Andropogon

scoparius, Heuchera richardsonii, Amorpha

canescens, & Ceanothus americanus, and

woodland species such as Carex hirsutella,

Smilacina stellata, Dodecatheon meadia, &

Hepatica americana. The Illinois endangered

Corallorhiza maculata and Lechea intermedia and

threatened Lathyrus ochroleucus occur in the

woodland. The tract is dedicated Nature Preserve,

and is being managed by prescribed burning.

(Schennum 1984)

References

What is a grade A woodland?

Dr. Wayne Schennum's paper on Moraine Hills woodlands

Bowles and McBride 1996 a still relevant and valuable review of the status of oak savanna and woodland remnants in Illinois

Index to blog posts on oak woodland conservation

Acknowledgements

Burn diagram from Packard and Mutel The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook, courtesy of Island Press.

Eriko Kojima wrote the first draft of Endnote 1. She and Rebeccah Hartz contributed proofing and edits.