GRASSLANDS NATIONAL PARK, Sask. — Prescribed burns are becoming more common in Grasslands National Park’s west block as staff work to restore areas to native grass and improve soil health.
Matt Johnson, a fire management specialist at the park in southwestern Saskatchewan, said fire should also promote grazing by the park’s bison herd and other wildlife.
Neither grazing nor burning was allowed for the first years of the park’s existence. Johnson said fire generally has been considered a negative and suppression the goal.
Read Also
Demystifying biological inputs
Biome Makers’ BeCrop Trials system measures changes in the soil microbiome after a product is applied. While the AgList/Biome Makers badge doesn’t validate efficacy, it signals a product has been through third-party field trials.
However, small burns have been done since the early 2000s to regenerate grass that sat idle for too long.
“It helps recycle nutrients back into the soils and helps promote good growth,” Johnson told a recent Society for Range Management tour.
“In this area, we burn to hopefully attract large grazers.”
The park has a herd of 300 bison, and fire helps move them around by offering them new-growth grass.
The park also contains a significant amount of crested wheatgrass, which staff want to replace with native species.
The burns began on small acreages of about 10 acres, but Johnson said large tracts of up to 1,200 acres will be burned in the future. About 185 acres per year have been burned for the last five years.
“We’re learning as we go,” he said.
A wildfire burned through the park along the Frenchman River in April 2013.
Fueled by high winds and dry conditions, it burned more than 16 kilometres and covered 11,500 acres.
However, within weeks it was hard to tell the fire had happened.
Higher than normal rainfall followed the fire, and the grass grew thick and green.
“By mid-May it was the greenest area of the country,” Johnson said.
The park is home to many prairie dog colonies, and he said staff hope the rodents will also move into burned areas. Burrowing owls were found in a couple of nesting sites last year that they hadn’t used previously.
“Fire is important,” Johnson said.
“It’s a necessary tool that complements what grazing can do.”
The fire ratio is historically 1:50 years, but it’s currently at 1:350. Johnson said the desire is to emulate the traditional ratio.
He said fire will also be used in the park’s east block.
