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Fire Management Justification

For the Asylum Lake Preserve

Prairie and Oak Savanna

2003

By Chad Avery

 

"Asylum Lake Preserve is an isolated remnant of a once much larger landscape that was maintained by disturbances such as fire, grazing and other natural disturbances.”

 

 

Common Burdock is one of many weedy invaders that can be controlled through the use of prescribed fire.

 

 

 

Background

 

            Fire has influenced plant communities for millions of years.  Native Americans increased fire frequency in the last 5-6,000years, especially in the eastern United States where lightning fires were less common than in the west.  They used fire to improve game habitat, increase the production of nuts and berries and to ease travel.

            Prairies exist in central North American because of it dry climate and the occurrence of periodic droughts. Oak savannas survive because of fire, without which alien woody shrubs and trees would quickly invade.  Regarding Kalamazoo County, Faculty Emeritus Dr. Richard Brewer states, “Some natural processes were suspended or altered by activities associated with settlement.  Fire might well be such a process.  The cessation of fire at the time of settlement could be a factor in the increase of species other than the exceptionally fire-resistant Bur Oak.”

           

                                                                       

 

An oak savanna the way it might have appeared in the early 1800’s

 

 

            Documentary sources indicate that the land which is now known as the Asylum Lake Preserve was owned and settled by Enoch and Deborah Harris, the first African-American residents to the Kalamazoo area, who arrived in 1830 from Marion County, Ohio.  The land was sold to other local farmers in the mid-19^th century.  Daniel and Jane McMartin first paid taxes on the land in 1866; the 1873 county atlas shows that they owned 101 acres north of the lake and their neighbor, N. Hinds owned 240 acres to the south.  The lake was called McMartin Lake at this time but became known as Asylum Lake sometime after the Michigan Asylum for the Insane purchased the land from the McMartin family in 1887.  The Trustees Report of the Michigan Asylum for 1887-1888 indicates that the land was acquired as part of a “colony” farm and recreation experiment.  The complex consisted of five cottages to house the patients, a central heating plant, two garages, a pump house, and connecting tunnels that remained in operation until 1947 when the facility was phased out and finally abandoned in 1969.  Most of the above ground architecture was demolished in 1971 for safety reasons.  Land ownership was transferred to WMU in 1975 through a Michigan House bill sponsored by representative Mary Brown, Donald Gilmer and Jack Welborn.

 

 

Fire Management Justification

 

            The Asylum Lake Preserve is an isolated remnant of what was once a much larger landscape that was maintained by fire, grazing and other natural disturbances.  Fire is one of the more useful interventions.  Prescribed fire is used as a management tool, not only for its historically good track record, but also because of its low relative cost when compared to mowing, herbicides and chainsaw work.  Consider the following benefits of prescribed fire:

• More native plants flower, produce seed and are more robust when prescribed fire is used in the management plan.
• Fire lengthens the growing season for native plants and shortens it for invasive Eurasian weeds.
• After a spring fire, the dark soil warms quickly to the benefit of prairie plants and to the detriment of weeds.
• Cool-season Eurasian weed grasses such as Blue Grass, Quack Grass and Brome stop growing as the soil warms.
• Late spring fire can burn off 3-8” of weeds before the prairie plants even begin growing.  Most prairie plants are warm-season forbs, legumes and grasses.
• Microbial activity is stimulated by fire and the nutrients released by ash.  More than 40 species of arthropods are attracted to burn sites because of smoke, increased soil temperatures and higher CO₂ levels.
• Invasive woody weeds are at a disadvantage due to the formation of the dense prairie sod that prevents seedlings from germinating.

 

 

 

 

 

When fire management is not practiced, some of the weedy herbaceous plants that will invade the restoration

include Bachelor’s Buttons (top) and Queen Ann’s Lace

 

 

Periodic fire maintains the Midwestern tallgrass prairie by inhibiting herbaceous weeds and slowing woody plant succession (‘Restoration Ecology’, Vol. 20, #2).  Recognition that fire suppresses woody vegetation has led to the widespread use of prescribed fire, almost always set in early or late spring.  Spring fires tend to favor dominant species and suppress subdominant species.  Management for uncommon or rare species may amount to the intentional suppression of dominant species using summer burns (see Fire Regime Proposal). 

            Timing of fire directly alters the competitive abilities of plants by damaging plants at different developmental stages.  Indirectly, fire alters the physical environment and suppresses competitors.  Spring fires damage early grasses and forbs as they begin growth.  Since mesic prairies, such as the one at the Preserve, accumulate more litter than dry prairies, they respond better to frequent burning.  Annual burns are suggested to improve prairies infested with cool-season grasses.  Three years of successive fire may be needed to begin control.

 

 

 

With continued suppression of fire, woody invaders include plants such as

Honeysuckle

 

 

 

The prolific fruiting of White Mulberry combined with its favor as food for birds makes this plant a big

weed problem in woodlands and neglected savannas

 

 

 

As with the mulberry on the preceding page, Common Buckthorn is found in huge quantities at the Preserve,

just waiting to invade new areas such as the prairie.

 

 

 

Management Alternatives to Prescribed Fire

 

            The use of mowing and herbicides has been suggested as possible alternative to prescribed fire at the Preserve.  Mowing is a useful tool when the restoration is newly seeded as it reduces competition from weeds and removes weed flowers before they go to seed.  As the seeded prairie plants become established, however, mowing becomes less effective and is relatively expensive.  In 2002, mowing the prairie one time required 60 man-hours, in labor alone, at a cost of $1,943.00.  Mowing an established planting does not tip the ecological balance in favor of the native plants, as described above, and treats weeds and natives as one, to the ultimate detriment of the planted natives.

            Herbicides that exist today are either non-selective (Roundup®) or they selectively control either broad-leaved plants or grass-type plants.  The herbicide that can detect the difference between a weedy Brome grass and a desirable Indian Grass has not been invented.  Thus, there is no herbicide that will damage only weedy grasses and forbs while not damaging the desirable grasses and forbs that comprise the restoration.

 

                                                                       

 

 Asylum Lake Preserve Oak Savanna & Prairie Planting

 

 

 

Effects of Fire on Weedy Invaders

 

            The following is a partial list of the invasive species found at Asylum Lake Preserve.  These are not all of the invasive species present, and for a few species the exact consequence of fire is not known.  In a few select species fire may not initially have an effect on mature plants, but it was the lack of fire that allowed these plants to become established.  Reintroduction of a fire regime is needed to ensure their elimination.  I would like to thank Aaron Young and Kendra Sales, Environmental Studies students, for enthusiastically researching the effects of fire on weedy invaders and sharing the information for inclusion here.

        

 

White Sweet Clover, Yellow Sweet Clover – Melilotus alba, Melilotus officinalis

- Sweet Clovers 

             Sweet Clovers are a biennial plant that sets roots and leaves the first year, flowers and drops seeds the second, and then dies. Because of this, controlling the seeds of this plant is the best way to eradicate it. Sweet Clovers are best controlled using a two-year burn schedule. The first year a dormant season burn (early spring, late fall) will cause any clover seeds in the seed bank to germinate, and the following year a later spring burn when the shoots begin elongating will effectively control the plant. Since its root system is not extensive, hand pulling may be an option for any remaining plants or for small infestations.

 

- Perennial Rye Grass

            A hot burn will kill all mature plants and also effectively germinate any seeds that may be in the seed bank. These plants should not be allowed to go to seed the next year. The most effective way to do this is through another burn.

 

 

- Dandelions

            These common weeds are easily controlled using fire. These plants are initially killed by the fire, and once the native plants are established they will keep dandelions from becoming established.

 

        

 

Kentucky Blue and Canada Grass