This year's prescribed fire crew poses for a photo after finishing a 470-acre pine-hardwood burn on Crab Orchard NWR. The burn crew included staff from Crab Orchard NWR, Shawnee National Forest and Cypress Creek NWR. - FWS Photo by Mike Brown

Like most of the forests in southern Illinois, much of the forest habitat at Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge has gone without fire for many years. 

Without such disturbance, increasing amounts of maples and other shade tolerate species tend to displace more desirable oak-hickory forests.  

Crab Orchard NWR staff applied prescribed fire on a record 1,150 acres acres this spring. 

Staffing burn crews is often a challenge and getting our burns completed would not have been possible without the assistance of many people from Crab Orchard NWR (permanents, seasonals, and a volunteer), Cypress Creek NWR, Shawnee National Forest and trained students from the Fire Dawgs program at Southern Illinois University.