Fire on the Prairie
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- Опубликовано: 27 июн 2024
- Midwestern ecosystems evolved with fire, so many of the native plants and animals in this area rely on intermittent burning to survive. Prescribed fire is used by land managers in ecosystem restorations to remove invasive plant species and rejuvenate the prairie. But what is it like to be part of the burn crew that runs a prescribed fire? Find out as Sheryl takes you along and shares her experiences from this spring fire season.
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#restorationecology #prescribedfire #RovingNaturalist
This video has been super helpful in explaining controled burns to my friend who lives in a city
This was super cool! Thanks for taking us on this field trip!
What a painstaking effort! We had no idea. We get brush fires in our area so this video really helped us understand the efforts to control them.
That's a great point! In many areas of the country, people see wild fires as a problem because they often threaten areas that have been settled by humans. But many ecosystems in the USA, including the coniferous forests of the south and west, and the prairies of the midwest, actually evolved with fire, so it's beneficial for the plants and animals there for land managers to use controlled fire to rejuvenate the community.
I was going to comment something similar. I live in CO and there is still some general anxiety from people even in regards to controlled burns. It's great to see resources like this show just how much work goes into it!
@@BlackOakBindery Yeah, I have to agree with you on that. Especially with the Black Forest fire and Waldo/Williams Canyon fires around Colorado Springs.
hmmmm ..nice like to see more
Absolutely fantastic video with a wonderfully narrated script! I know that in many ecosystems that have evolved with fire, the frequency of burns is often a critical factor. If fire occurs too often or too infrequently the native flora and fauna can be detrimentally effected. Has a beneficial frequency rate been determined for the prairie type at this location?
(I changed my channel name - John O’Brien)
I'm glad you liked the V/O
The managers at this particular facility tend to favor a once-every-2-years approach (so one year burned, one year not, etc), but I'm not sure if they've decided this is the absolute ideal. However, they have been instrumental in the writing and evaluation of a survey of land in Illinois that would benefit from fire, and the proportion of land that probably should be burned and is burned is so sadly small that they do their best to champion best practices and frequency to help educate other landowners/managers.
Great job on the video. Congrats.
Great video! I'm adding it to my new hires playlist for Land Management.
So glad you found it useful!
I love fire 🔥 😍
Just like how eastern native american tribes "cleaned up" forests
Allan Savory's holistic management cell grazing animals will rejuvenate your prairie in an ecologically sound way
I looked into his theory and, like so many things in ecology, more research needs to be done in order to better understand the effects of his proposals. However, it isn't relevant in this case anyway, because the restoration managers at this site were able to reintroduce native grazers (a herd of 100+ bison) to the landscape, so there's no need to use Savory's alternative of domestic cattle.
Like this video Like be smoke jump friends
Estan destruyendo su casa
why does this take training ?
Great question! Being a wildland firefighter or working on prescribed burns requires training because there are both safety considerations and technical skills that need to be learned. For instance, the online training modules include information on how fire behaves under different weather conditions (amount of wind, humidity, etc) and in different fuel loads (like grass versus dry leaves). Both the modules and our actual training day included information about how to use the different tools and the jargon fire crews use to quickly and efficiently communicate what's happening (including sudden changes in fire behavior).
I would say this is more of a want than a need. But for those who do not understand fire or have little experience with fire, training is definitely warranted.
I'm not sure I understand why you think it is a "want" rather than a need. Even with hours of training, professional wildland firefighters die. This is a dangerous thing to do, and it takes a lot of training and practice to do well. Each spring, the local fire companies in our area are called out to assist private landowners who had tried to do controlled burns on their land and the fire has gotten away from them. This is no joke, and the training has a yearly renewal component so everyone stays fresh.
@@TheRovingNaturalist If a fire gets away from you, then you are being careless. People were probably burning down-wind or letting embers carry too far in the wind. But you are probably right about one thing: People have become so removed from nature I'll bet there are people who have not even tended a camp fire. So maybe training is needed now.
Your "if/then" statement indicates to me that you may not have had much experience with wildland fires or prescribed burns. Even when taking all of the precautions and having years of experience, firefighters are still working in a natural system, which means things can become unpredictable. I'm sad to hear that you think it all boils down to "carelessness" - I think that is incredibly disrespectful to the people who work hard and put their lives on the line to do this.
Ask your burn boss why no one had a fire shelter? Fire shelter training was part of your S-130 training, correct? Wildland firefighters wear their shelter at all times even when the fire is miles and miles away. More wildland firefighter deaths occur in short fast burning grasses than anywhere else. Safety isn’t an inconvenience, it’s a constant necessity.
That's a great question! Yes, everyone on our crews has gone through all of the online wildland fire training modules, as well as a day of practical training on-site. Practical training did include learning how to use the shelters, but because of the controlled/planned nature of our fires (and hence their mostly-predictable behavior) and their relatively small size, we were told that carrying shelters was unnecessary.
Fire shelters do little when you cannot reach mineral dirt. In this region, units are small enough and firebreaks are always close enough that it is easier and faster to get to the other side of the firebreak than it is to dig to mineral soil and deploy a fire shelter.
Those are all great escape routes and safety zones you’ve described. However, it doesn’t matter if you have a concrete runway behind you, not wearing all your safety gear should never be justified.
Pretty much any agency in California would send you home. You would never be allowed to participate without all your gear being worn. PPE, long sleeve t-shirt underneath, helmet with shroud, web gear with your own personal fire shelter.
No argument about this operation being cooperative and uneventful, but it is a hollow justification to burn without a shelter on your hip.
A McCloud will scrape that fuel to mineral dirt in seconds. Get a few McClouds. It is my favorite wildland tool.
While we appreciate your perspective, the managers at this site have been extensively trained and are part of The Nature Conservancy, so we're pretty sure they are following best practices for this particular activity. Remember that prescribed burns are very different from wildfires.
@@herbiesnerd out here is the prairie many rx fire bosses consider fire shelters as more dangerous for anyone on the crew who may be a new as the speed at which a fire moves across a tall grass prairie is much faster than one can have time to calmly create or find a safe area, and then deploy it as well. Let alone an experienced fire fighter. We aren't in California and we know that, it's a different place here with different habitat, weather, crews. It's not just TNC crew at Nachusa, it's pretty much the same across the whole Tallgrass Prairie Region.
Dr Beth Shultz says, there is far more scientists saying untold harm is occuring to climate, ecosystems and humans than saying otherwise. Our Winter periods are not wet or overcast these days , leading to fuel load failing to decompose. Why is this? Climate change. Whats caused CC? Burning. Bush, Indonesian rainforest, Amazon rain forest, coal, petroleum . So terrible you are burning Karri, something NAtive Australians never did
Native Americans did in fact burn the prairies in North America quite extensively as part of their hunting strategy for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. Some scholars believe it was actually the main selective force behind the prairies evolving as they did into the communities we observed in the 1800s and are trying to restore today. Without fire, the prairie becomes invaded by tree saplings. We like to joke at our field sites that "there is no such thing as an old-growth prairie," because with enough time and no burning the area will just become a forest.
If you'd like to learn more about the complicated issues surrounding climate change, I recommend checking out the channel Hot Mess by PBS Digital Studios. It's a well-researched channel that deals exclusively with climate change questions, so hopefully they'll be able to address your concerns more completely.
Fire has been a part of the natural environment in North America for thousands of years. Fire is required to maintain healthy prairie ecosystems that are full of biodiversity.
and austraila is burning to the ground more and more every year because they don't. Climate change is a lie. Everyone is freezing now and colder than it's ever been recorded they are saying. Let me guess, global warming is making it colder too,... right??? 🤣
Bee, there are far more Doctors saying this is not only ok, but necessary. More importantly than the doctors, the indigenous peoples around the world we pushed aside for centuries know this. Good fire.