DAYTON, Ohio — Fire is a captivating phenomenon. It can destroy a given area or structure in minutes. But in the hands of well-trained professionals, it can be a useful tool in managing a landscape.
Five Rivers MetroParks is using a conservation tactic called a controlled burn to clean up prairie areas at Wegerzyn Gardens MetroPark.
“We’re trying to restore a natural process that used to take place centuries ago where natural fires would go through and kind of reset prairies,” Regional Manager of Conservation Grace Dietsch said. “Which is an important part of the survival and continued existence of these fire-adapted plants.”
Regional Manager of conservation Grace Dietsch works to start and control a fire to clean up a prairie in Dayton.
That natural process is called a prescribed or controlled burn, which is a fire that’s intentionally set to help clean up a given area.
Dietsch and her team are using the tactic for the first time ever in the fall season. She said after they are done with the process biodiversity actually has the opportunity to flourish.
“We call this a patchy burn,” she said. “So leaving some portions of a prairie unburned allow to provide some winter cover for certain species of wildlife.”
In addition to this being a tactic you don’t see every day, there’s a unique connection to this project. Grace is actually working in tandem with her husband, Adam Dietsch.
“Yeah it’s great to work with her,” Adam said. “I met her on a wildfire in Idaho in 2012, and I think maybe six months after that when the fires were all out we moved in together. About less than a year later we were married.”
Adam is the park manager for the Englewood MetroPark, and together they are supervising a team of a dozen staff. Their combined experience and interests help to make this project move smoothly — something they said is important because oftentimes the prescribed fire is mistaken for an accident.
Five Rivers MetroParks completed a controlled burn project at Wegerzyn Gardens MetroPark in Dayton. Proper signage was placed so the community wouldn’t think it was a working fire.
Grace said the end goal is to improve the biodiversity by the time the project is finished but wants to warn folks to leave this tactic to the professionals.
“Just don’t try this at home,” she said.
