Recent wildfires in Jackson County have charred hundreds of acres, but the burning actually could prove beneficial to some areas, a state fire expert said.
The county has had at least four fires in the past week in both forest and field lands, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
The fires took out several acres of mature trees, a large section of pine seedlings as
well as grassland and prairie, said Blair Anderson, chief of forest management with the DNR.
While the timber that burned was a loss, the grasslands not only should recover but might be better than before, Anderson said.
"If (a prairie) hasn't burned (before), it will liberate some of the nutrients from the site that had been tied up in the old vegetation above the ground," Anderson said. "Many times after the burn, not only will the prairie come back strong, it will come back stronger than ever. It's like giving it a bath."
In grassland fires, vegetation above the ground burns but the heat does not affect the roots that lie below the ground.
Those plants eventually will grow new vegetation. Plus, vegetation that had not yet started to grow is not usually affected, Anderson said.
The fire near Jean Road in the town of Manchester south of Black River Falls, unfortunately, was a more dangerous and destructive type, burning essential vegetation on the tops of the trees and killing them, Anderson said.
It does have a minor benefit of allowing light in to smaller trees, he said.LaCrosse Tribune via Red Orbit
