The Role of Fire on the South Puget Sound Prairies

Ecological Prescribed Fire is a tool that is used to improve ecological conditions for particular species or for general habitat enhancement.

Fire plays a fundamentally important role in the prairie ecosystem. Without regular and frequent fires over the past several thousand years, the South Puget Sound prairies would not exist today due to tree and brush invasion.

Though early fire on the prairie landscape is somewhat shrouded in mystery, it is known that the Native people in the area regularly burned grasslands in order to maintain open prairie and oak woodlands. These habitat types were important for harvest of food, medicine and raw materials and for hunting. The tribes in the South Puget Sound region developed sophisticated methods for managing the prairies. There is evidence that suggests that tribes actively consulted one another and may have participated in cross-tribal burning practices. During this period, the prairies were probably burned about every one to five years.

The prairies that existed in the 1820’s were the result of thousands of years of interactions between the native people’s burning and harvesting practices, and the plants and animals that inhabited the region. The long duration of these interactions developed an ecosystem that is unique in the world, containing several species and plant communities that exist nowhere else.

In the mid 1800’s, European settlers migrated to the region, initiating a large-scale shift in land use that favored crop production and livestock grazing. With this change, fires were actively discouraged, and the use of the prairies by Native Americans was largely ended. These European settlers were originally drawn to the natural beauty and vast open landscape that the fires had helped sustain. The era of fire suppression resulted in diminished prairie lands with non-native plants and Douglas-fir encroaching onto the once vast and open grasslands.

Beginning in the 1980’s prescribed fire was reintroduced to the South Sound to help preserve what was left of the prairie landscape. Native plant and animal species are adapted to regular fire, and have benefited from its reintroduction. Fire removes built up thatch, moss and litter, releasing nutrients and providing openings for new seedlings to germinate. Fire can be an important tool for controlling invasive plant species, such as Scotch broom, that do not tolerate fire. As new lush growth emerges following a fire, deer and elk are drawn back to the area. Butterfly host plants multiply, ensuring food for the next generation of caterpillars, and thereby benefiting the future of the prairie butterflies.

Ecologists and site managers apply the most current safety standards in their application of ecological fire. Burn crews are composed of trained wildland firefighters with all the necessary equipment and supplies to safely conduct each burn. Burns are only conducted when weather conditions are safe and favorable and the decision to proceed with every burn is made in cooperation local fire and clean air agencies.

Overall, fire is an important part of the cultural history of this region, it directly benefits several species of plants and animals, and it is a critical part of the ecosystem processes that sustains the South Puget Sound prairies.

CNLM Burn Program Report

Read the 2011 South Sound Burn Program Annual Report here [PDF].