Seven areas of Indiana Dunes National Park, mostly in Porter County, are in line for prescribed fires this fall, the park has announced.
Micah Bell, the park’s fire prevention, education and mitigation technician, said Wednesday that the burning program would start in a couple of weeks, after more leaves have fallen.
The controlled fires will be conducted by National Park Service firefighters, helped sometimes by U.S. Forest Service workers.
The park conducts prescribed fires every spring and fall to help restore natural areas and to reduce the danger of uncontrolled wildfires.
Some of the burns scheduled this fall were planned for last spring but couldn’t be carried out because of unfavorable weather.
The largest area scheduled this fall is the 547-acre Howes Prairie/Lupine unit just south of Dune Acres. It’s named for the late Lois Howes, a Dunes Acre resident and self-trained naturalist who persuaded the Save the Dunes Council, the citizens organization that advocated for the national park, to buy the Cowles Bog area in the 1950s, before Congress created the national park.
The park’s first-ever prescribed fire was conducted in Howes Prairie in 1986.
Another large area scheduled for prescribed fires is the Tolleston Dunes area in Gary, including 330 acres of rare black oak savannah just west of County Line Road and south of U.S. 12.
One fire will be in a 66-acre portion of the unit adjacent to County Line Road, and another in 264 acres west of Union Street, near the Woodlake Village apartment complex.
On the national park’s east end, near Central Avenue Beach, the 215-acre Kansas Avenue unit is scheduled for a controlled fire. Another is planned for the nearby Dunewood Campground south of U.S. 12.
Near Ogden Dunes and Portage, the park service plans to burn the 150-acre Burns Ditch unit, in and around the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk. West and south of Ogden Dunes, a prescribed fire is planned for 93 acres parallel to U.S. 12 in the Long Lake unit.
Each burn unit has management goals and objectives, and designated weather conditions — including wind speed and direction — must exist before a fire is set.
Residents of Lake and Porter counties may sign up for prescribed fire notifications through the Smart911 system by going to www.smart911, which provides emergency notifications, a private 911 safety profile and a vulnerable needs registry.
Also, the park announces prescribed fire activity on its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/IndianaDunesNPS
Tim Zorn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
