It’s prescribed fire season in Nebraska, and you may have already noticed the telltale signs: haze in the air, plumes of white smoke.
These planned fires are critical to the health and profitability of Nebraska’s ecosystems, experts say.
“Prescribed fire is a planned fire, also referred to as a controlled burn or prescribed burn,†said Dillon Fogarty, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln Ph.D. student studying natural resource management. “Landowners carefully plan these burns to meet specific land management goals, based on scientific research and extensive experience.â€
Some of those goals include reducing wildfire hazards, increasing forage nutrition for livestock, creating and maintaining wildlife habitat, and controlling invasive plants, such as Eastern red cedar.
Controlling Eastern red cedar is a major land management objective for many landowners, Fogarty said. The effects of this invasive species are far-reaching: It can reduce livestock productivity in an area by 75% as it strips foraging grasses of water and sunlight. Eastern red cedar also increases wildfire risk and pushes out wildlife species that depend on grassland ecosystems.
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“Greater and lesser prairie-chickens are some of the best examples of this,†Fogarty said. “Even with a small increase of Eastern red cedar on the landscape, they will stop using those areas and go elsewhere.â€
Prescribed fire is one of the most cost-effective ways of managing Eastern red cedar, Fogarty said, and it targets all stages of invasion.
“It’s incredibly effective,†he said.
Historically, fires were a natural occurrence in the Great Plains, and without them, experts say, our grasslands would not exist. By using prescribed fire now, Fogarty said, landowners are helping preserve the historic grasslands that our communities and economy are built around.
On days when smoke from wildfire or prescribed fires is present, you can minimize your exposure and protect your health by following these tips from the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy:
* Limiting or avoiding strenuous outdoor activity.
* Remain indoors if you have a respiratory or heart-related illness, keeping windows and doors closed. Run an air conditioner if you have one, but keep the fresh-air intake closed and the filter clean to prevent outdoor smoke from getting inside. If you do not have an air conditioner and if it is too warm to stay inside with the windows closed, seek shelter elsewhere.
* Don't add to indoor pollution. When smoke levels are high, do not use anything that burns, such as candles, fireplaces or gas stoves. Do not vacuum, which stirs up particles already inside your home. Do not smoke, it puts even more pollution into the air.
* Following guidelines in local health advisories.
Renae Blum is a public information officer at the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Contact her at renae.blum@nebraska.gov.