To everything there is a season ... burn, burn, burn

Every county in the state has patches of native prairie in the roadside ditches.  As remnants of Iowa's original prairie landscape, these ditches deserve our best management efforts.  Whether restoring a native remnant or nurturing a new planting, fire is the most effective tool for managing prairie.  Just as fire once helped maintain the world's vast grasslands, controlled burns in the right-of-way help restore native plants to greater health and abundance.

Timing is everything.  A burn in May or early June favors warm-season prairie grasses over introduced cool-season grasses like brome.  March and April burns might be less disruptive to native forbs flowering and producing seed.  By burning at different times throughout the year we avoid favoring the same set of species over and over, most important in more diverse remnants.  Burning in March probably favors brome as much as it favors warm-season grasses.  But a March burn is probably better than no burn at all.  Leave unburned patches to aid butterfly recovery.

When conducting prescribed burns, roadside managers consider: traffic safety, weather conditions, adjacent property, equipment and manpower.