Prescribed burns may return to Shawnee National Forest

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- After years of absence, fire could be returning as a management tool in the Shawnee National Forest.

The proposed new forest management plan calls for prescribed burns on about 12,000 acres, or about 4 percent of the forest, annually.

"The forest evolved, probably, with frequent fire," said Scott Crist, the district fire management officer for the Shawnee National Forest. "That was poorly understood for a while. Indians used it extensively, and that's what the research shows."

A research project written by Charles M. Ruffner and Andrew Carver, professors of forestry at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, states the use of fire as a management tool was prevalent prior to the 1500-1600s when epidemics decimated the native populations.

The oak-hickory forest we have today reflects that history.

Research also indicates early farmers also used frequent burning as a management tool. However, the Shawnee National Forest has been largely untouched by fire since the 1940s.

"This year, we burned 800 acres in the forest," Crist said. "Most of that was on open land, to maintain it as open land."

About 23,000 acres on the west side of the forest have been designated as possible sites for prescribed burns. That includes areas around Kinkaid Lake and LaRue-Pine Hills. Environmental impact analyses are being conducted on those areas.

The lack of fire has created a changing landscape in the Shawnee.

"We've seen a dramatic shift in species competition in the forest," Crist said. "What happened down here, on all the uplands, we had oak-hickory dominated forests. They were probably more open, less density of tree stems, although those that have survived probably grew bigger."

The lack of fire has led to a build-up of fuels in some areas, particularly out west, resulting in more intense forest fires. Secondly, particularly in the Shawnee, the absence of fire is promoting the proliferation of maple and beech at the expense of oak and hickory.

Crist said acorns and nuts produced by oaks and hickories are a vital food source for many wildlife species, including deer, turkey and waterfowl.

"Here, it isn't such a fuel issue, but we still have a corresponding change in forest structure," he said. "To keep the forest in oak and hickory, it's a survival strategy.

"We take an area that we think fire would achieve some objective -- reducing fuels, enhancing wildlife habitat, improving pasture range or eliminating invasive species."

Prescribed burning can also be an effective tool for eradicating invasive species. In the Shawnee National Forest that includes autumn olive, Japanese honeysuckle and kudzu.

"Kudzu is like the cockroach of plants," Crist said. "It's hard to kill."

Prescribed burns are conducted under well-established conditions.

"We do a prescribed burn plan," Crist said. "We define how we are going to do the burn. Elements include maps and contingency plans -- if it escapes, where are extra resources to help -- and a prescription of a range of parameters of when we will burn."

Wind, relative humidity and temperature are all important variables.

The intensity of the fire is an important consideration. The first needs to be hot enough to burn available fuels, but not hot enough to damage large, healthy trees.

"Normally, we start on the downwind side," Crist said. "We'll start a fire in a corner, a test fire, to see how it burns. If it achieves objectives, we'll continue with the burn."