October 13, 2009

SMSC Land Department To Conduct Prescribed Burns

Prior Lake, Minnesota - Prescribed burns on Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community lands are planned between mid-October and mid-November 2009. Staff from the SMSC Department of Land and Natural Resources and Mdewakanton Emergency Services conduct the burns.

This fall the SMSC also created a burn plan and are planning to administer a cooperative burn of a three acre prairie at Five Hawks Elementary School in Prior Lake. Last year at the request of the City of Prior Lake, the SMSC burned two restoration areas at Lakefront Park.

The SMSC may also assist the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs with prescribed burns in other areas as it has done in the past.

A prescribed burn is an intentionally lit, low intensity fire used by land managers to replicate natural fires. Prescribed burns benefit natural communities by removing dead biomass, adding nutrients to the soil, releasing native seed banks, and killing non-native species.

Prescribed burns have to meet specific weather requirements. Relative humidity, temperature, and wind speed and direction are considered among others. The fire will be out of prescription and not lit if any requirement exceeds plan limits.

In a natural setting, a low intensity fire would burn prairies and prairie/wetland complexes on a three to five year cycle and sometimes annually. Fire prevention activities leave most natural areas overgrown and susceptible to being invaded by non-native or invasive species. SMSC Land and Mdewakanton Emergency Services staff have conducted prescribed burns on tribal lands since 2004.