Every so often, Charles Skornia sets fire to sections of his land in central Missouri. It’s something he’s done for about 38 years, and he prefers it over other management methods, like mowing.
“You could maybe burn a field with a half day, a couple hours of work or so, but it would take you a couple days to brush all your field off with a brush hog,” Skornia said.
Skornia is president of the East Central Prescribed Burn Association in Missouri and is a third-generation farmer who raises soybeans and wildflowers. He started doing prescribed burns to get rid of cedar trees and other unwanted plants on his property.
He said intentionally burning the area opens it up to native wildlife and enhances the natural ecosystem.
“Production will be enhanced greatly if you do a fire,” Skornia said. “One year I didn't do a fire, I pretty much lost a crop.”
As climate change is causing wildfires to become more frequent and burn bigger areas during longer seasons, the practice of prescribed burns – or intentionally burning land to manage it – is gaining new attention.
In 2020, 9.4 million acres of land were treated with prescribed fire across the country, with 84% of burns done on state and private land, according to the most recent National Prescribed Fire Use Report. Although the acreage is down from 2019, it was the second-highest number reported since the survey started in 2012.
Kansas was one of states with the greatest number of acres burned by prescribed fire, according to the report.
There are dozens of prescribed burn associations across the country, and Skornia’s association has about 60 members. He’s seen more people interested in burning, mainly for improving quail habitat in his area. Skornia said this work is important to maintain wildlife and to prevent wildfires as the climate changes.
“God put us in charge of all this stuff, so we need to take care of it and this is one method we can do that,” Skornia said.
Fighting fire with fire
Driving into Stillwater, Oklahoma, passersby can see scorched black sections of land. More acres in the state are burned from prescribed fires than wildfires, said John Weir, senior fire ecology extension specialist at Oklahoma State University.
Weir helped host a prescribed fire training in Stillwater this month for firefighters, landowners, emergency planners and other people interested in learning about controlling wildfires.
“You got landowners that have thousands of acres that haven't burned before or have, and people are seeing the need and the importance of it, as well as having all these fire departments here realizing that, ‘Hey, we've got to start helping the landowners,’” Weir said.
To conduct a prescribed burn, weather conditions including wind speed, humidity level and temperature have to be right, and people need to follow their local laws. In Oklahoma, there’s a prescribed burn handbook and trainings are available to learn about the process safety and available resources, such as local burn associations.
Weir said that most people in the state burn to control invasive red cedar trees, and about half also burn land to control wildfires.
Indigenous people have used fire as a tool to clear land, promote ecological diversity and reduce the risk of wildfire for thousands of years. The practice also holds cultural and spiritual importance for many Indigenous communities.
When European colonization spread in the U.S., fire suppression, or extinguishing fires, became more common. But with this method, fuel in the form of dry, dormant or dead plant matter can build up, according to the National Parks Service. Suppression, urban development and climate change have led to bigger, uncontrolled wildfires, according to the service.
For Weir, teaching people about using fire on the landscape is important. In his experience, he said the main reason why people don’t conduct prescribed burns is because of fear of liability. But, he said that rarely happens.
“The term I always hear is, ‘It's going to get out and burn the county down,’” Weir said. “You know, they think it's just going to do that. Well, the deal is that's as far from the truth as you can find.”
How are wildfires changing?
Wildfires are a part of the Midwest and Great Plains ecosystems. But there is an increased risk when there is drought, said Eric Hunt, agricultural meteorologist with the University of Nebraska extension.
Because of the drought conditions over the past few years, Hunt said fire risk has extended eastward. He said many people think of wildfires happening in the western part of the country. But they’ve become more of a concern in new parts of the Midwest – including the eastern portion of Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
“We've had some severe drought conditions, particularly in the fall and particularly right around harvest time, where we have had combines catch fire, and then sometimes those fires have spread through fields that have done significant damage,” Hunt said.
Last year, blazes started earlier in parts of the Great Plains and resulted in the largest wildfire in Texas state history. Last year, nearly 9 million acres burned in wildland fires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Hunt said communities in his region should think about fire prevention such as having well-staffed fire departments, maintaining strong rural volunteer squads and making sure resources are dedicated toward fire management and fire prevention.
“Because it could be a significant financial loss from an insurance perspective and otherwise if we have more of these big events in the future, it certainly is possible” Hunt said.
Recently, the U.S. Forest Service is among the federal agencies experiencing layoffs under the Trump Administration. NPR reports that 2,000 probationary workers have been fired, and some of those employees say the layoffs makes the agency less prepared for the upcoming fire season.
Hunt said another issue has been invasive species, particularly the eastern red cedar in the Great Plains. The trees are a nuisance to producers not only because they crowd out vegetation for cattle, but also they cause wildfires to burn hotter and higher, making them harder to contain.
Among producers, Hunt said there is an increased awareness of wildfire risk, especially around machinery. Many will take precautions, such as keeping a fire extinguisher in a combine or having water tankers nearby, he said.
“You actually saw farmers that flat out just stopped harvesting for an afternoon or for a day during some of the worst conditions last October,” Hunt said.“I had a couple farmers this winter tell me that they had never ever stopped harvest for a day because of wildfire risk.”
This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.
