After weather and scheduling conflicts conspired to prevent the Brookfield Conservation Commission from completing a controlled burn in Kiwanis Park’s oak savanna last winter, the group now hopes to accomplish the task in the next five months.
Sometime between mid-November and mid-March 2007, the volunteer group will perform a controlled burn of the savanna’s floor in order to promote growth of native plants in the habitat while eradicating non-native plant species and weeds. Members of the commission and other volunteers who have been trained in conducting such burns will work in cooperation with the Brookfield Fire Department in the effort.
“We’re trying to do it on a Saturday,” said Conservation Commission Chairwoman Suzanne Williams. “Weather factors and crew availability factors sometimes make that tricky, but we’re optimistic of getting it in this [winter].”
According to Williams, the burns seek to replicate conditions that over thousands of years naturally led to the evolution of oak savannas in the area. The burns are a cost-effective and safe way to bring nutrients to the soil and weed out invasive plants.
“It promotes the return of nutrients to the soil,” Williams said. “True native plants have extremely deep root systems because of the sometimes droughty conditions. The plants have adapted, so their roots go deep into the soil. The burns help the nutrients percolate down into the soil. It also helps burn off non-native plats or weaken them. But it doesn’t weaken the native plants.”
Williams said that if conditions are right, they’d like to burn a significant percentage of the oak savanna area, which extends west from Salt Creek to Arden Avenue and south from Washington Avenue to just north of the Kiwanis Park picnic/playground area.
The burn could last anywhere from two to four hours, Williams said, adding that flames will be kept low to the ground and will move slowly. While smoke is inevitable, Williams said that the burn would only be done when wind conditions were right. Part of the reason for doing the burn in the winter, she said was to minimize the effect of the smoke. In colder weather, there was less chance house windows would be open.
“Under the best conditions, the smoke will be minimal, but there will be some smoke,” Williams said.
Williams added that doing the burn during the colder months would probably result in a more successful outcome. When the commission last did a burn in the spring of 2003, it wasn’t particularly effective, she said.
“The really green fuels don’t burn well, so there’s not a lot of fuel for the fire,” Williams said. “You also don’t want to impede growth during the growing season.
“[The burn in 2003] was good in the sense that some burning was done, but it was not as effective as we hoped,” she added. “The amount of coverage of the burn is a real consideration, and there wasn’t a lot of coverage last time. You want 70 to 80 percent burn out.”
Signage coming in spring
Whether the burn happens sooner or later, the Conservation Commission will be adding some signage to the savanna in the spring of 2007. The signage will be educational and explanatory in nature, Williams said, giving information on the characteristics of the oak savanna and what visitors to the savanna should be looking for.
Meanwhile, Williams said that the commission has, for the time being, pulled back on plans that called for paths through the oak savanna to be paved. That prospect was brought to the village’s Board of Trustees a year ago, but was shelved as too expensive.
In retrospect, that was probably a good idea, Williams said, since paving the trails brings its own set of issues regarding upsetting the habitat. Furthermore, she said the crushed stone paths put in place in 2004 are functioning pretty well.
“As time has gone on the screening laid in 2004 has tamped down pretty nicely,” Williams said. “The maintenance issues are not as much as we thought they might be.”