Prescribed burn planned in my home town

Pizzo & Associates Ltd. employees burn prairie plants last fall at the company's headquarters in LaSalle County. The fire is carefully controlled.

This is interesting. Oak Park, where I live, is going to try a prescribed burn to control weeds in a local park tomorrow, according to the local paper, the Wednesday Journal.

Prescribed burns aren't yet common in established urban areas. But they are a standard practice in natural areas restoration; they mimic the lightning-set fires that the native prairie ecosystems evolved to depend upon. A fire would kill off shallow-rooted weedy plants and consume the dried stalks and leaves of previous years' growth, but it wouldn't harm the deep root systems or tough seeds of the native plants. And the burning would release nutrients from the ashes to the plants' roots. The result, especially just before spring rains: a burst of healthy growth.

I've seen prescribed burns; last fall I watched one close-up at the headquarters of Pizzo & Associates Ltd., an ecological restoration firm based way out west in LaSalle County, where they use about 40 acres around their headquarters building to grow dozens of species of prairie plants to collect the seeds.

The techniques for controlling the fire are well developed now and the deftness and craftsmanship at work were remarkable to see. The Pizzo folks carefully watched the wind as they moved the fire along a few feet at a time, squirting the dried vegetation with gasoline and setting it alight with blowtorches. Any errant wisp of flame was quickly stopped with a spray of water from a tank on wheels.

The plants flamed up only for only a minute or two. Within minutes -- while the smoke still rose -- I placed my hand against the ashes and felt the ground merely warm.

That burn was done in fall; most are done in spring. It only takes a couple of weeks after a spring burn for the land to be covered with green sprouts from the crowns of established plants and newly sprouting seeds.

Pizzo just had an exhibit at the Chicago Flower & Garden Show in which they explained the whole process of ecological restoration, including regular burning to keep a restored landscape healthy. According to them, a landscape of native plants requires much less maintenance than, for instance, a lawn that needs to be mowed.

But it does require some work, especially since it exists in a world packed with introduced species that, left unchecked, could out-compete the native plants. Those weeds are controlled mainly by burns.

When the prairie restoration got started around here in the 1970s and 1980s, prescribed burns in forest preserves and other natural areas were a major freakout for many people. They are much more common and less scary now. They've been done in Jackson Park and other Chicago parks where natural areas are being restored or re-created.

When Marcus de la Fleur lived in an established area of Elmhurst in a very humble rented house on a standard-size lot, he used to burn his tiny side-yard patch of native plants, although it took some educating to get the village officials to permit it. (He's moved to the city now and is working on a new house.)

But Oak Park has never done a prescribed burn before. They're doing it not in a restored area, but in a patch of Lindberg Park (at Marion Street and LeMoyne Parkway) that is simply choked with weeds. The local fire department in charge. I might have to drop by and see how deft they are.




Skilled restoration workers can manage a fire with great precision. At Pizzo & Associates last fall, the fire was guided around a patch of plants from which valuable seeds had not yet been collected.

Got a garden question? I recommend you call or e-mail the Plant Clinic of The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, the Master Gardeners of the University of Illinois Extension or the Plant Information Service of the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe .

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