Indian Creek Nature Center conducts regular (annual or bi-annual) prescribed burns of its prairie, oak hickory savanna, and woodlands as part of its land management strategy. The organization follows a burn management plan and notifies the Bertram Fire Department of all burn dates. Do not call the fire department if you see burning on the Nature Center’s campus on one of the below dates. Burns are only conducted if the weather is appropriate and if there are no burn bans in effect.
The next planned burn dates, weather permitting, are Monday, October 29 and November 1, 3, 10, 12 and 15, 2018. The map below shows the priority burn areas. Some trails WILL BE CLOSED on these burn dates.
More information about prescribed burns:
Prescribed burns have many ecological benefits and help to promote a healthy prairie.
- Sunlight directly reaches and warms the soil, stimulating germination and growth of native forbs, sedges and grasses
- Fire creates a natural patchy mosaic, leaving unburned patches and seeds
- Fire damages or kills invasive trees and shrubs, maintaining the prairie
Without fire, the prairie ecosystem is prone to collapse. The effects of fire suppression are:
- Lower wildlife diversity
- Increased nutrient runoff
- Increased soil erosion
- Species extirpation or extinction
- Overgrowth of invasive or inappropriate trees, shrubs and plants
