One of Ontario Parks’ main objectives is to “protect Ontario’s most significant natural and cultural landscapes.” At Pinery Provincial Park, a natural environment park south of Grand Bend on Lake Huron, this means protecting a globally rare oak savanna ecosystem so that it can be enjoyed for generations to come.
In the case of Pinery’s endangered oak savanna, protecting this type of habitat to ensure its long-term health and survival means deliberately setting the ground cover ablaze using a controlled or “prescribed” fire. Although this would have been frowned upon 20 years ago, it is now an accepted resource management practice, an essential part of keeping the park and its ecosystems healthy.
In April and early May of this year, MNR’s Aviation and Forest Fire Management Branch in cooperation with Ontario Parks will conduct prescribed burns to help restore and protect rare ecosystems at Pinery, Rondeau, Turkey Point and Wasaga Beach provincial parks and at Ojibway Prairie provincial nature reserve. The following series of photographs tells the story of a prescribed fire at Pinery.
Image 1:
Fire breaks around areas designated to be burned are cleared of leaves and flammable material. This creates a safe boundary to contain the fire once it has been ignited.
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Temperature, humidity, wind speed and rainfall are measured for months before the burn. Using this information, fire experts can calculate the “Fine Fuel Moisture Code,” which allows them to predict fire behaviour
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When weather and other conditions are right (usually April and May) fire crews from the Ministry of Natural Resources ignite and monitor the areas to be burned. Park staff assist fire crews in monitoring the fire.
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The fires move fast – up to 20 metres per minute. This means a block of land over 50 hectares in size can be burned in about an hour.
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20 MINUTES after the fire has swept through, leaves, shrubs and small trees have been burned. A few centimetres below the surface, the soil is cool and damp.
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ONE DAY after fire has swept through, the minerals and nutrients trapped in the leaf litter have been released into the forest floor.
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ONE WEEK later seeds that have long lain dormant are stimulated to grow. Some shrubs and trees that have been top-killed re-sprout from their root systems.
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TWO WEEKS later grasses, shrubs and wildflowers are growing up through the ashes. With extra nutrients and less competition for sunlight they grow faster than in an unburned area.
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THREE WEEKS after the burn, ferns and small trees have taken advantage of the open mineral soil and become established.
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SIX WEEKS after a prescribed burn so many plants have become established it is hard to believe it was on fire less than two months ago.
Last Modified: April 1, 2003
© Queen's Printer for Ontario, 2003
