Prairie Management and Restoration, Prescribed Burns

The City of Eden Prairie conducts prescribed prairie burns during the spring and fall seasons, depending on weather conditions.

When prescribed burns are scheduled in Eden Prairie, residents adjacent to burn areas are notified by mail or door hanger ahead of time. A notification typically occurs the day before the burn. Additional time for notifications is difficult because weather conditions change frequently.

What to Expect

Parks and Natural Resources staff have experience with prescribed burns at the private, local and state levels. Contractors are hired to assist when needed.

Depending on the size of the prairie, a burn could last one to three hours. Although burns are planned to take place during weather conditions that cause the least adverse effects, there may be a short period when smoke is noticeable from your home.

After burning, the ground appears charred, but the spring season brings plant regrowth with a variety of new species.

For questions about prescribed burns in Eden Prairie, contact the City's Parks and Natural Resources Division.

Benefits

Photos

This is the start of the prescribed burning process. Using a drip torch our trained personnel walk and create lines of fire. There are many strategies for how to burn depending on the desired rate of burn and desired level of fuel consumption.

These are mid-burning photos of Prairie Bluff Conservation Area and Richard T. Anderson Conservation Area respectively. In the first photo, you can see a line of fire moving its way downhill at Prairie Bluff conservation area. This prescribed burning technique is called back -burning and is used when a slower moving fire line is desirable. In the second photo, you can see trails are being used as fire breaks, which are used to keep the fire in a controlled area.

Afterburn

This is what a prairie looks like in spring after it has been burned. It comes back lush and green because of all the nutrients deposited in the soil and the removal of dead biomass.

Prescribed Burning Information

A prescribed burn is an intentionally lit, controlled fire used by land managers to replicate natural and historical fire events.

Burns are often conducted when native plants are dormant or entering dormancy, but non-native/invasive species are still growing. Timing burns during this period damages non-native/invasive species, while simultaneously stimulating growth in native species. All prescribed burns are designed to meet ecological objectives and are dependent upon weather conditions such as relative humidity, temperature, and speed and direction.

Prairie management in Eden Prairie is guided by best management practices, which coincide with historic practices used by the indigenous Dakóta and Ojibwe nations that occupied this land prior to European settlement.