Over the next couple of weeks Bloomington-Normal residents may see controlled burns in natural areas.
These burns are done in prairies to control invasive plant species and stimulate growth of native plants.
Stantec burn boss Derek Pellicci said the goal of the burn is to mitigate some of those invasive species without having to use herbicide.
The controlled burns have already started. Jason Comfort with the Town of Normal Public Works department said they alternate natural areas throughout town every other year, or every three years.
“We do that to try to preserve soil quality, but also try to just offset when we're burning in certain areas,” Comfort said.
The Town of Normal avoided burning areas like Fairview Park last year.
“Last year we didn't do this section,” said Comfort. “If everybody recalls, we had a pretty early spring, so we actually didn't get a whole lot of burning done last year, but this year conditions are perfect to be able to get these done.”
The burn
The Stantec burn team at Fairview Park started with “burn prep,” which involved cutting the vegetation that was growing close to protected trees, putting up “Prescribed burn ahead” signs, calling the local authorities and having a pre-burn meeting.
“We'll just go over everybody's role, what the expectations are,” said burn boss Pellicci. “We'll go over the weather forecast, just so everyone's aware of humidities and wind directions.”
The crew then split into two teams, one on each side of the creek, and they set the prairie ablaze.
“As we go, you'll see the crew members behind us kind of mopping up, keeping [the fire] from creeping through the turf, keeping it from creeping up on any trees. We'll use water when we need to, but for the most part they'll use flappers or rakes just to kind of suppress the fire,” said Pellicci.
By the time the team leaves at the end of the burn, all of the flames are extinguished.
Pellicci said this is the perfect time of year to do the burns.
“We've got great weather for it,” said Pellicci, “and this is a great time to do it because we're not really getting the new growth for this year, so that kind of can keep some of the smoke down.”
The burned areas will be blackened for a few weeks, but will turn green for the spring.
