Controlled burns on Iowa grasslands could become an important management tool, ridding pastures of unwanted trees and weeds to encourage grazing, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
“As the prairies were here originally, there were periodic burns caused by the native people and lightning. Those grasses were used to that type of thing–that was the environment they were growing under,” said Brian Peterson, an NRCS grassland conservationist in Creston.
John Biars, state NRCS conservationist, said fire would be especially effective in removing cedar trees encroaching on Crop Reserve Program grasslands in some parts of the state.
Biars said burning wouldn’t hurt the grass, and the smaller, younger trees could be killed with one quick fire.
“We have to do some revising of some of our standards, but I would say prescribed burning is definitely a management tool,” he said.
