InciWeb - Incident Information System

• Incidents >
• Minnesota >
• Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge >
• Spring Burning

• Incident Information
• Announcements
• Closures
• News
• Photographs
• Maps

Image options: [ Enlarge ] [ Full Size ]

Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge located in Bloomington Minnesota, is within the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area and one of only a handful of urban refuges in the National Wildlife Refuge System.

As part of the Refuge's on-going Hazardous Fuel Reduction Program as well as for long-term restoration of fire dependent Tallgrass Prairie and Oak Savanna ecosystems, the Fire staff from the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge has executed prescribed burns on 13 units approximately 500 acres this spring. Plans call for additional burns, but as always, the unpredictable upper Midwest spring weather will determine the final results.

Several of the burn units are part of the Wildland Urban Interface and hold significant fuel loadings. Refuge Fire staff and equipment assisted in initial attack on 4 wildfires, 3181 acres this spring. One wildfire was on Refuge, the others were assists to adjacent communities and the Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources.

Many of the Refuge units have been severely degrading due to buckthorn, red cedar and other invasive woody and non-woody species over a period of years. The burning prescriptions call for a spring burn timed to reduce the dead fuel loading and stress the invading non-native vegetation at a vulnerable point in the growth cycle. A fall burning program is also used to reduce fuel loading and lessen the fire program workload for the following spring.

Following the actual burn an evaluation of the fire's effectiveness is conducted. This may be thought of as an "After Action Review" for the vegetation. Results are used to modify prescriptions and tactics if needed.