A delicate green plant sprouting next to a charred log at Thorn Creek Nature Center in University Park contradicts the notion that a fire is an unwanted disaster that leaves only destruction in its wake.
“When you hear on television of a wildfire destroying thousands of acres, you think that the land [affected by a fire] is no good,” said David Mauger, supervisor of natural resource management for the Forest Preserve District of Will County.
“But those landscapes are not destroyed. It’s a process, and this is the beginning of a new cycle.”
At Thorn Creek Nature Center where 232 acres burned in the fall last year, naturalists and others are starting to see signs of rejuvenation.
“There are some things that appear to be helped by the fire,” said John Mendelson, pointing to some native plants, such as jack-in-the-pulpit and woodland goldenrod, that are returning.
Mendelson is a member of the Thornwood Creek Management Commission, which oversees the 900-acre property. It is jointly owned by the Forest Preserve District, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, University Park and Park Forest.
The area at Thorn Creek where the fire raged is easy to distinguish from the neighboring land that escaped the blaze. Instead of the thick green vegetation that dominates part of the preserve, the burned land is nearly barren of greenery; there are large gaps of open spaces between trees, blackened stumps and only small plants just beginning to emerge from the earth.
To date, the cause of the Thorn Creek fire has not been determined.
Although prescribed fires, which are deliberately ignited and controlled, are used elsewhere in the district to maintain ecological balance, the commission’s policy at Thorn Creek is to rely on wildfires. They expect one to occur about once every 8 to10 years.
“We consider it [fire] to be a natural part of the system,” Mauger said. “If the fires happen, then we want to make sure the entire woods doesn’t burn and that private structures [such as nearby houses] are not burned. It’s a containment policy.”
In other preserves, prescribed fires have been deemed necessary to maintain the ecology of particular areas.
“It’s a way to maintain particular vegetation types or habitat types for rare plant and animal species,” Mauger said.
For instance, fire is used at Braidwood Dunes and Savannah Nature Preserve near Braidwood to maintain its unique setting, which consists of large open spaces dotted with black oak trees and grass.
Without prescribed fires, “it would close up entirely into a sand forest, and you’d lose the savanna species, like the lupine [a plant] and the Karner Blue [a butterfly],” Mauger said.
Although Thorn Creek is beginning to see some evidence of rejuvenation, a fire also does some detriment, according to Mendelson. For instance, a fire results in a more barren landscape and the possibility of erosion.
Mendelson said the commission is keeping an eye on the long-term results of last year’s fire to determine whether its policy of not using prescribed fires is on track.
“One of the things that the fire will tell us is whether we should do prescribed fires in some sense,” he said.
