Fire was once a natural part of many Michigan landscapes. Today, prescribed fire helps restore habitats that depend on it, including prairies, savannas, and young forest areas. It can also help reduce invasive plants and encourage native plants to grow from the seed bank.

---

Planned Burns: Oct. 5-9

Monday, Oct. 5:
Stearns Creek North 

This unit is a presumed oak barrens remnant located in the upland directly adjacent to Stearns Bayou. Oak barrens are fire-dependent natural communities with 5-60% oak canopy cover and a ground layer of native grasses, sedges, and wildflowers.The unit has been burned once prior, and significant mechanical woody removal (including cut-stump, girdling, and brush-hogging) efforts were completed from 2025-2026.

• Expected burn window: 12-5 PM
• Acreage: 2.7
• Objective: Restore unit to an oak barrens natural community type with a diverse herbaceous ground layer, and expand habitat for rare fire-adapted species (e.g. wild lupine, Canada frostweed, etc.). Improve nesting habitat for eastern box turtle and other species with similar nesting requirements.

Tuesday, Oct. 6:
Grand Ravines North

The unit is primarily dominated by native perennial tall grasses with low density native and non-native forbs dispersed throughout. A dense thatch layer exists due to prior lack of fire. 

• Expected burn window: 1-4 PM. Traffic entering the park may be briefly stopped (~10 minutes).
• Acreage: 7
• Objective: Maintain a healthy mesic prairie natural community type with little to no canopy cover, and an herbaceous layer with high forb diversity. 

Friday, Oct. 9:
Hemlock Crossing

What makes fire such an effective land management tool? How did Michigan’s ecosystems evolve with and come to depend on fire? How do today’s burn crews conduct safe, well planned burns? Join us for this free Learn & Burn event and get answers to all your burning questions!

This open house style program begins at 12 pm. Drop in anytime to explore hands on stations, talk with prescribed fire practitioners, and experience a live prescribed fire demonstration.

• Expected burn window: 11:30 AM-3 PM
• Acreage: 3.6
• Objective: Improve and maintain the health of restored dry sand prairie and wet prairie natural communities with a diverse mixture of native forb and grass species. 

Click here to register for the Learn and Burn Event.

---

What’s New for Ottawa County Parks?

Internal Burn Crew

Our Natural Resources Management team significantly expanded its prescribed fire program this spring, advancing both staff training and on-the-ground restoration work. Our Stewardship Supervisor completed Michigan’s Certified Prescribed Burn Manager (CPBM) training and is now officially certified through the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. In addition, we hosted our first annual staff and volunteer burn crew training at the North Parks Operations Center, welcoming nearly 30 participants for a half-day of classroom learning and hands-on practice with tools, pumps, and fire equipment. 

Successful Spring Burns

This spring, our burn crew successfully completed four prescribed burns across Ottawa County Parks.

At Eastmanville Farm (5.3 acres) and Grand River Park (4.9 acres), grassland burns focused on reducing non-native grasses and invasive shrubs while stimulating germination of native plants from the existing seed bank. These efforts aim to enhance plant diversity, improve pollinator resources, and improve wildlife habitat.

Burns at Stearns Creek South (5.6 acres) and Robinson Forest (1.4 acres) supported an ongoing restoration effort to revive oak barrens, a globally rare, fire-dependent natural community found in parts of Ottawa County Parks. These burns targeted invasive species such as spotted knapweed and reduced woody vegetation and canopy cover, allowing more sunlight to reach the groundlayer and encouraging a diverse understory to return. Mechanical thinning is being paired with fire to gradually restore these landscapes, and vegetative monitoring plots were established at Robinson Forest to track ecological change over time.

All burns were completed smoothly with no incidents or complaints, and offered valuable training opportunities for staff and volunteers. In total, 17.2 acres were managed with prescribed fire this spring. These areas will be monitored to evaluate ecological responses and inform future burn prescriptions. 

Looking Ahead

Burns are tentatively planned for six parks this fall, including Eastmanville Farm, Stearns Creek North, Robinson Forest, Grand Ravines, Grand River, and Hemlock Crossing.

---

Fire-Dependent Ecosystems in Michigan

Michigan is home to many fire-dependent ecosystems, including prairies and savannas, but much of this habitat has been lost. In fact, Michigan has lost 99.98% of its savannas. This is especially concerning because prairies and savannas support some of the highest numbers of rare species.

What is a Prairie or Oak Savanna?

Prairies and oak savannas exist along a spectrum. Prairies are more open, while forests have dense tree cover. Oak savannas fall in between, with about 30% to 60% canopy cover.

What Happened to These Habitats?

Many prairies and savannas were logged and converted to agriculture. On nutrient-poor, drought-prone soils, red pine plantations were often established instead. Across Michigan, remnants of oak savannas, also called barrens, still exist, but many have since become forested because of fire suppression.

Some former fields also fail to return to healthy native habitat because invasive plants take over, preventing native trees, wildflowers, and grasses from growing.

Without regular fire, this prairie would likely shift back to cool-season grasses. Mowing does little to reduce those grasses, but a well-timed prescribed fire can. Fire can also help suppress invasive species such as brome and spotted knapweed.

You can see the difference between the two sides of these fields. The side treated with fire is healthier and less dominated by invasive plants.

---

Isn’t Fire Destructive?

On the contrary, fire can be restorative for our native ecosystems. In southwest Michigan, many of our landscapes and the wildlife who inhabit them, rely on wildfire to survive. Wildfire is naturally occurring but because uncontrolled wildfire is dangerous, we have become very good at suppressing it. While that protects people and property, it also interrupts an ecological process that many native species depend on. Prescribed fire allows us to safely and carefully reintroduce that process.

What Grows Back After a Burn?

A forest burn is different than other types of controlled burns.For example, in 2015, prescribed fire was used in the prairie at Hemlock Crossing Park to reduce invasive plants and expose the seedbank, allowing native wildflowers and grasses to return. When burning a mature forest, the same plants and trees are expected to return. The same species of tree are more attractive to some wildlife in their youthful shrubby stage. As the forest matures and grows dense, it pushes out wildlife that is adapted to young forest. Having both mature and young forest present increases biodiversity.

What About the Animals Who Live There Now?

Wildlife in fire-dependent habitats is adapted to fire and often responds by flying, burrowing, or moving away from the flames. Forest burns are typically slow-moving, giving animals time to seek safety.

Burns are carefully timed before most birds begin nesting. Wildlife often returns quickly after a burn. Before prairie burns, which tend to move faster, staff and volunteers search the area for slower-moving animals and for species that are already rare because of habitat loss. If found, those animals are carefully moved and returned after the burn.

Eastern box turtles, for example, rely on habitats maintained by fire. Without these habitats, the species could not survive. Because they are already threatened, great care is taken to avoid harming them during prescribed burns.

Does Prescribed Fire Work?

After clearing out red pines from Port Sheldon Natural Area in 2009, a diverse batch of young trees such as red and sugar maple, beech, black cherry, and oaks grew up in thickets. Several special birds who hadn’t been sighted in the county for years returned to the young forest. Since the prescribed fire was a success, it was re-cleared with fire in the spring of 2016. Re-clearing their habitat ensures they will continue to call the PSNA home. Visiting the restored prairie outside of the Nature Center at Hemlock Crossing is a great way to see just how quickly wildflowers and other species grow and bloom following fire.

Is Prescribed Fire Safe?

Prescribed burns are planned and carried out with great care.

If any organization were to lose control of a fire, it could affect the use of prescribed fire across the state. That is why every burn is taken seriously. Burns vary in complexity. Prairie burns are generally less complex than forest burns, but both require detailed planning.

Crew members work only within designated burn units and are equipped not only with drip torches, but also with pressurized water pumps and sprayers. Potential hazards such as stumps and large trees are avoided because they can burn too long and create unsafe conditions.

Smoke management is one of the most important parts of planning a burn. Burn prescriptions identify conditions that allow smoke to rise or move away from sensitive areas. Late spring often provides the best ecological results, including stronger impacts on invasive plants and better support for wildflowers, but it can also produce more smoke because vegetation is beginning to green up.

Another important step is mop-up. Many burn sites, especially former pine plantations, contain dead logs and stumps that can smolder for days. Burned areas are checked for several days afterward to make sure the fire is fully extinguished.

Prescribed fires rely on a very specific set of conditions for success, including:

• Temperature
• Relative humidity
• Wind speed
• Ceiling height

Ceiling height refers to how well smoke can lift and disperse. High-pressure days are often best because smoke rises and moves away more effectively.

Want to read more about prescribed fires in Michigan? Check out this very cool, very detailed story map from the Michigan DNR about prescribed burns!