MADISON (WKOW) — Monday’s warm temperatures in Southern Wisconsin may have also come with a burning scent in the air.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says dry Spring weather calls for the highest chance of fires all year.
Michele Witecha is the DNR’s fire specialist and says people may begin to see an increase in controlled burns throughout the state from March to May.
“It is the easiest time of year to carry fire without negatively impacting a lot of the wildland species that we do prescribe burning for,” Witecha said. “This time of year is still on the beginning end of that bell curve for nesting, so this way we can avoid any of those impacts, not only to our nesting grassland birds, but also to reptiles and amphibians.”
Witecha says controlled burning dates back to the First Nations Tribes that inhabited many parts of Wisconsin thousands of years ago to help manage the land.
She says the DNR will continue to conduct controlled burns to help prevent large wildfires.
At the UW Arboretum in Madison, controlled burning is common to help maintain its ecosystem.
Patrick Bohlen is the UW Arboretum Director and says many of their controlled burning took place over the weekend.
“We burn two different units, and those are the parcels that we burn all at once, of about 20 acres. That’s really essential for maintaining those ecosystems. It’s the main management tool that we use,” Bohlen said.
Witecha and Bohlen say planning and safety is key to making sure it is appropriate to burn land.
“There’s lots of focus on those units in terms of developing fire breaks, developing proper ignition plans, how to hold the fire within and not only are we looking at the weather forecast to see what weather parameters are lining up for a safe burn, but we’re also looking at what that burn is going to do the day of based on the weather forecast,” Witecha said.
Bohlen spoke on behalf of his fire specialist at the Arboretum and says timing is key to burning land.
“A lot of it has to do with which way is the wind blowing, when are the conditions right,” Bohlen said.
Both urge the public to not be too concerned if they see controlled burns, since many are supervised by a mix of fire officials and conservancy groups.
“We don’t get a lot of complaints about our burns because we can only do them really at times when it’s not going to cause a problem,” Bohlen said. “Very often, our visitors will walk right past a fire, and they’re very interested in seeing that.”
The DNR recommends visiting this website to find where active burning is taking place and when controlled burns are planned in Wisconsin.
