Nature at McMaster conducted a controlled burn with the assistance of Wildlife Specialists Inc. at the McMaster Forest Nature Preserve (1105 Lower Lions Club Road) on April 9, 2024. The burn encompassed approximately 4.06 hectares (10.06 acres) of the current tallgrass prairie and the adjacent old field.
This burn was to promote tallgrass prairie health by removing excess detritus, putting nutrients back into the soil, suppressing shrub growth, and suppressing the growth of non-native cool season pasture grasses and European buckthorn. This was the first time burning the adjacent old field ecosystem and we hope to encourage prairie naturalization of this space. Wildlife refuges, or unburnt regions, were left throughout the burn area to provide refuge to small mammals, reptiles, insects, and birds during and after the burn before the vegetation grows back, and provide for early colonization of the burnt regions by insects/invertebrates. The native plant community rebounds incredibly quickly post-burn and by the end of the season there will be little physical evidence that the burn has occurred.
This was the second complete controlled burn and third time using controlled fire at the property.
Controlled burns help maintain the rare tallgrass prairie ecosystem and have an overall benefit for ecosystem and landscape health. There are no long term consequences to controlled burns and they do not have any long term negative impact on the landscape or the species that nest, forage, and otherwise use this environment.