Fighting fire with fire: Controlled burns benefit habitat management

“Settin’ the Woods on Fire” is the title of an old Hank Williams song, but many old-timers can remember when people literally set the woods on fire.

In the late winter or early spring, before the vegetation began to actively grow, it was not uncommon to see smoke coming from the timber.

In modern times, such an event is called a controlled or prescribed burn, as a fire is set to clear out underbrush and dead leaves. By removing the fuel, there is less risk of future disastrous wildfires.

Fire is also a natural and necessary part of a healthy ecosystem. It helps promote more diverse plant growth, controls the spread of some invasive plants, improves wildlife habitat and literally brings new life to the woods, timber, or forest.

Burning can release nutrients into the soil, benefiting plant growth. Burning can also help reduce populations of insects and pathogens that thrive in decaying vegetation.

I remember standing along the edge of some timber at my parents’ farm when I was a little girl, watching fire slowing burning the undergrowth and dead leaves beneath the tall oak, walnut, hackberry and sycamore trees.

I asked my dad if we should be worried. He said the fire was doing good things. He told me we would come back to that spot in the spring and see green plants growing. The woods were just getting a good cleaning.

So far this year, I have brushed many ticks from my clothing after being in the woods. I have tweezed one lone star tick and four deer ticks that had attached to my body.

Tick-borne diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis, tularemia, Lyme disease and disease caused by the Heartland and Bourbon virus are well-known here in the Midwest.

Another serious and potentially life-threatening allergy caused by a tick bite, alpha-gal syndrome, is on the rise. The tick bite triggers a person’s immune system to become sensitive to the sugar molecule alpha-gal which is found in most mammals, like cows, pigs and deer.

Once you have the allergy, if you eat red meat, like beef, pork, or lamb, or sometimes even dairy or foods made with animal-based ingredients, you can have a serious allergic reaction. There is no known cure for alpha-gal syndrome.

Prescribed burns can reduce tick populations and, ultimately, decrease the risk of tick-borne diseases.

Fire reduces the litter and dense vegetation which ticks rely on for shelter and moisture. And, of course, if the fire is hot enough long enough, the heat will kill ticks.

The practice of intentionally setting woods on fire significantly decreased in the early 20th century. News of “The Big Burn” in 1910, which destroyed three million acres in Idaho and Montana, spread like wildfire as did awareness of the potential devastation of out-of-control burns.

It was at that time, early in the 20th century, when the U.S. Forest Service began active opposition to the practice of setting the woods on fire.

Maybe Smokey Bear wouldn’t have had to work so hard all these years if we would have paid attention to our farming ancestors and the Native American population who set the woods on fire carefully and deliberately, in a controlled manner, to manage and shape the landscape and habitat.