Spring Burn Season Poor Due to Weather

 "We played dodge ball with the weather this spring," said Debbie Antlitz, ecologist with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. "One day we burned a small remnant, which did it a world of good, but drove to the next burn site through light flurries."

In Chicago Wilderness prescribed burns are challenging because of complex safety, weather and ecological parameters. Fall 2001 was wet. Spring 2002 brought "record warm weather during the week of April 8, accelerated green-up and brought the amphibians and reptiles out, which shut the program down on the 11th," explained Brad Woodson, an ecologist with the McHenry County Conservation District.

Last fall, warm temperatures allowed some agencies to burn far beyond the typical fall schedule, but others were unable to meet their goals. "We burned over three hundred acres during a period of three months in the fall burn season, including some rare burns in January," said Ken Klick, restoration ecologist for the Lake County Forest Preserves. But damp conditions in the Kane County Forest Preserve District curtailed plans to burn six hundred acres of woodlands and wetlands. They completed about thirty acres.

Region II of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) planned to burn more than seven thousand public and private acres this spring. "I estimate we completed maybe half of these burns, due to exceptionally poor weather," commented Tom Gargrave, regional forester with the IDNR.

"Our private lands burn program was the worst I have seen in fifteen years. Less than 25 percent of the sites had complete burns."

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County keeps burn records that include weather conditions, category of fire, and comments about burn coverage as a layer of information in a Geographic Information System database to help plan future burns. "When we look at what's going on at a specific site, we also look at the burn history," explains Leslie Berns,  natural resources supervisor. "These records may give us an indication of what we need to do or change. For example, if we usually burn in the spring and native grasses are beginning to dominate the site, we might back off and burn in fall."

The Forest Preserve District of Will County (FPDWC) collects efficiency ratios to assess how well the burn program is being implemented. In one season, there may be only twelve workdays that present good weather and the right fuel conditions: wet snow marks the end of fall burns; dry fuel starts the spring burns. If crews are out burning nine of those days, that's a 75 percent fire implementation efficiency. "This is where planning comes in; to take advantage of the weather we have to prepare early," said Dave Mauger, FPDWC natural resource manager. — Gian Galassi and Alison Carney Brown