Prescription for a Healthy Environment

Friday the sky was a smoky gray above the as crews with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County conducted a prescribed burn.

Several days this week the weather was right for the burns, with winds blowing at the right speed and in the right direction ensuring that homes and businesses wouldn’t be inundated with smoke, according to an official with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County.

Both the forest preserve district and the will be conducting prescribed burns in upcoming days and weeks. How quickly the burns are completed will depend on Mother Nature.

In the forest preserve district, the burns can take a few days or as much as a month to complete, depending on the weather, said Jay Johnson, manager of site operations for Forest Preserve District of DuPage County’s west division. Since the burns take place in and urban area, the main consideration is having the winds blowing the right direction and that depends on the area to be burned.

Fire is used in managing the district’s wetland, prairie and woodland areas, he said. Burns are the best way to control the undesirable and invasive species that may be growing. The burns allow the district to manage the invasive species, while fire-tolerant native species are allowed to thrive and flourish.

“It is a natural process and it is a useful tool for us in managing these areas and keeping them natural,” Johnson said.

Burning takes much less effort than it does to potentially mow an area, and the benefits are that native species grow back and thrive, he said.  The staff can burn as much as 80-100 acres of open space at a time.

“Our big goal beyond that [managing invasive species] is to work with our neighbors and we work heavily with the different [fire] departments,” Johnson said. “We come up with a list of the areas we want to burn. Then we come up with the ideal winds to burn that area and then determine when [is the optimal time]."

There is a brief window of opportunity to get the burns done before things start to “green up,” Johnson said, with weather the major factor.

Depending on the year, some areas may not undergo a prescribed burn if conditions aren’t right. In some cases the district will use mowing or, in other cases, management is put off until it is possible to conduct a burn.

At the Naperville Park District, a number of areas are expected to undergo burns in the coming days and weeks, said Kelly O’Brien, park specialist with the district.

“The majority of the parks we do burn, a lot are around shorelines, but we also do some open areas, open areas with tall grasses and that will give any native plants out there a chance to survive,” she said. “Shoreline is easier to burn than mowing because there are slopes.”

Both districts take safety precautions before conducting burns, Johnson and O’Brien said. Fire departments are alerted when a burn will be under way. Neighbors are informed and police are notified as well. If a school is nearby, O’Brien will make sure it is informed about the burn.

Park and Forest Preserve District staffs are trained before they participate in the burns. During prescribed burns they have water tankers on hand as well as backpacks loaded with water and hand tools used to control the fires, Johnson and O’Brien said.

Even with all the announcements about the burns, the police and fire departments receive calls when people see the smoke, Johnson said.

Naperville parks slated for controlled burns:

Arrowhead Park

Ashbury Park

Bailey Hobson Woods

Baileywood Park

Brighton Ridge Park

Brook Prairie

Clow Creek Greenway

Commissioners Park

Country Lakes

DuPage River Park

Frontier Sports Complex

Hobson West Ponds

Kingsley Prairie

Knoch Knolls

May Watts

Meadow Glens

Pioneer Park

River Run Preserve

Rock Ridge Park

Seager Park

Sportsman’s Park

Springbrook Crossings

Springbrook Golf Course

Springhill Greenway

Tallgrass Greenway

Tallgrass Lakes

Veteran’s Park

Weigand Park

Wildflower Park

Will-O-Way Commons

In Naperville residents near the selected sites will be notified via mail that the Naperville Park District’s controlled burn program will be conducted in their area. For more information about controlled burns in your area, please call 630-848-5035 or visit our Web site at www.napervilleparks.org.

To learn more about prescribed burns, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County will host “Introduction to Prescription Burns” on April 10 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Herrick Lake Forest Preserve in Wheaton. Registration is required and is available through Visitor Services at 630-933-7248 beginning March 28.