Prior Lake, MN – Prescribed burns are a means to manage natural plant communities as well as reduce fuel loads. Out of control wild fires can cause serious damage and destruction if they spread to developed areas. For these reasons, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community conducts prescribed burns on reservation lands each fall and spring.

 In the fall burns are held after foliage has turned brown but before snow fall. In the spring burns are held after the snow melts, but before the grass turns green. Prescribed burns help prevent uncontrolled fires which can damage homes and businesses.

This fall, prescribed burns on Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community lands are planned between September and the end of November 2010, though they are entirely dependent upon weather conditions.  Wildland/prescribed fire staff from the SMSC Department of Land and Natural Resources, Mdewakanton Emergency Services, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) conduct the burns. SMSC staff and Mdewakanton Emergency Services have conducted prescribed burns on tribal lands since 2004.

A prescribed burn is an intentionally lit, low intensity fire used by land managers to replicate natural fires. Fire prevention activities leave most natural areas overgrown and susceptible to being invaded by non-native or invasive species. In a natural setting, a low intensity fire would burn prairies and prairie/wetland complexes on a three to five year cycle, though sometimes annually. Prescribed burns benefit natural communities by removing dead plant material, adding nutrients to the soil, releasing native seed banks, and killing non-native species.

Prescribed burn plans have to meet specific weather requirements, be cognizant of managing smoke, and consider safe and efficient ways to administer the burn. Relative humidity, temperature, and wind speed and direction are considered among others. Adhering to specific parameters discussed in prescribed burn plans ensures firefighter safety, proper smoke management, and overall success of implementing the prescribed burn. 

The SMSC is gearing up for a relatively large fall burn season, though it is weather dependent. Experience has shown that the weather is usually not very cooperative for fall burning but in spite of that, the SMSC is hoping to burn prairie restorations and wetlands. 

• A 200-acre native prairie grass pasture that runs between County Roads 83 and 16 and next to McKenna Road is the largest area on the fall 2010 burn list.
• A six-acre restoration area just east of Dakotah Parkway and across from the Pow Wow Grounds.   
• Prairie grasses growing in Dakotah Parkway medians equal to about one acre total.
• Wetland S-10 and its prairie buffer south of Dakotah Meadows RV Park total about three acres. 
• About 12 acres in Wetland C-24 north of the SMSC Public Works Building.

All but Wetland C-24 are trust lands so the burns will be administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs with the assistance of SMSC personnel. The C-24 Wetland is on fee land, so the SMSC will manage that burn.

SMSC staff may also assist other reservations with prescribed burns if needed as well as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct burns in the Minnesota River Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and other areas as in the past.

In the fall of 2009 the SMSC created a burn plan and administered a cooperative burn of a three acre prairie at Five Hawks Elementary School in Prior Lake. The previous year at the request of the City of Prior Lake, the SMSC burned two restoration areas at Lakefront Park.