Prairie Management

As part of our goal of maintaining diverse habitats within the park district, we are currently creating areas of native prairie and grasslands at several of our parks. Native prairies contain special plants not normally found in old field habitats. Ohio prairies are diverse areas which offer special habitat to a variety of wildlife species.

Establishing prairies is not always easy. Existing weeds and grasses need to be eradicated in order to make room for the new plants before seeding can take place. Seeding usually takes place in winter to early spring with a special planter modified to handle the very small, sometimes fuzzy seeds.

Before the prairie plants become established, other vegetation needs to be kept in check by mowing and spraying periodically so the prairie plants don’t get shaded-out. However, within a few years the prairie becomes self-sustaining with little need for herbicides or mowing.

Historically, prairies in this region would have been located in areas of disturbance, usually by fire set by Native Americans. Prairie grasses and flowers have evolved special features which protect them from fire such as deep roots and other perennial tissue located under the ground, protected from intense heat. Without periodic fires in our region, woody plants such as trees and brush would shade out and overtake prairies.

In order to mimic grass­land fires that would have taken place his­tor­i­cally, we use pre­scribed fire. The use of pre­scribed fire is widely accepted by many gov­ern­ment and pri­vate con­ser­va­tion agen­cies as the most effi­cient and effec­tive way to main­tain large prairie areas.

Pre­scribed fire con­trols unwanted woody growth, pro­motes early prairie seed ger­mi­na­tion by remov­ing dead plant mate­r­ial, and helps con­trol non-native plants.

Although the exact time of burn­ing depends on weather con­di­tions, gen­er­ally burns are con­ducted in either late fall or early spring for two rea­sons. First, at this time of the year above ground prairie tis­sue that could later slow prairie growth is already dead and will burn well.

Sec­ond, most wildlife species that could be neg­a­tively affected by fire are either using other types of habi­tat or are under­ground at this time of year.

Because fire can be poten­tially dan­ger­ous and destruc­tive, pre­scribed burn­ing requires spe­cial train­ing. Field bor­ders are mowed close to the ground to cre­ate “fire breaks” which are designed to help con­tain the fire.

Per­mits from the Ohio Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency and the Ohio Divi­sion of Forestry must be obtained. Burn plans which out­line accept­able con­di­tions for burn­ing must be fol­lowed in order to ensure safety.

Neigh­bors to the parks who wish to be con­tacted before burns take place should call our office at 740–524-8600.