11/16/2025
🔥This weekend we conducted our first prescribed burn on the pollinator garden prairie!
It may not seem like much, but trust us, this is what it’s supposed to look like!! Many people are surprised to see that a prairie burn doesn’t always look “scorched”. Our burn was patchy, leaving areas of unburned vegetation and many standing forbs left behind. Thats completely normal!!
🔥Fire is an essential process for prairie ecosystems. Historically, prairies burned every 1-3 years from natural influences, like lightning strikes, or by Indigenous fire practices. Regular fire occurrence reduces thatch buildup, returns nutrients to the soil, suppresses invasive species that are unadapted to withstand fire, and stimulates native vegetation. Native grasses and wildflowers need these conditions to thrive!
🌱🌼🌾 This is the first burn since planting, so there is mixed densities of grasses, moisture levels, and leftover plant material. This results in more fire in dense dry grasses, skipping areas with less vegetation, and leaving standing forbs untouched because they hold more moisture and don’t carry fire as well.
🐦🐛🦋 This patchy burn still leaves habitat available for nesting insects like bees, butterflies, and beetles, provides cover for small mammals, and leaves seed-heads available as food sources for many birds and other species!
So while it may look like the burn didn’t “take”, appearance is not always a measure of success!
✅ The goal of a prairies first burn is to simply reduce ground-level thatch, recycle nutrients, and stimulate native plant growth - - not to create a uniform black landscape. And we did just that! Clearing the ground layer and exposing soil to sunlight will create conditions the prairie needs to flourish this spring!
🙏Thank you to all of those who have supported us along the way to make this achievement possible!