Prairie fires continue their critical role in restoration

Roads and Grounds schedules regular controlled prairie burns in the spring and fall.

The wet, cold weather has put a damper on a crucial method of keeping Fermilab's prairies healthy: prairie burning. In the spring and fall, Fermilab Roads and Grounds uses controlled fires to burn off weedy plants -- which often have no natural checks in the prairie ecosystem -- while encouraging the growth of native plants.

To see the effects, just travel to the 15th floor and look for small patches of green sprinkled throughout dead grass. Those green areas thriving with plants are probably areas that burned this spring. Prairie plants survive fires well because the majority of the plant is underground, said Fermilab ecologist Rod Walton. The invasive species, which stand in the way of a restored prairie, have most of their biomass above ground, so they are less tolerant of fires.

More fires are needed to meet the annual goal of burning 600 acres, said Mike Becker, manager of Roads and Grounds. The window of opportunity is closing, although there was a successful burn in the Main Ring last Friday. The cutoff date for fires is April 15, when birds begin nesting, and all the recent rain has meant fewer burns. "We hope to get better weather," Becker said.

Although 600 acres may be a hard goal to reach, Becker says it's worth a try since burning is cheaper than mowing or applying herbicide. "Considering all management options, burning prairie areas is the most effective." Fermilab has been using the technique safely for about 30 years, and its prairie restoration program has won several environmental awards.

In addition to controlled burns, Fermilab ecologists also harvest seeds and remove weedy plants by hand to encourage prairie diversity. The lab is not unique in burning prairie. Morton Arboretum in Lisle burns its prairie to remove English and Japanese plant species.

Read More on the Ecological Land Management web site.

--Kate Raiford

Editor's note: Robert Betz, who pioneered the prairie reconstruction project at Fermilab together with Director Robert Wilson, passed away on Thursday, April 5. Services will be private. Fermilab Today will highlight Betz's contributions in an upcoming story.

NPR's Morning Edition,
April 9, 2007

Massive Particle Accelerator Revving Up

This summer, physicists plan to throw the switch on what is arguably the largest and most complex science experiment ever conducted. An underground ring of superconducting magnets, reaching from Switzerland into France, will smash together subatomic particles at incredible force.

Physicists say they're not sure what will emerge from those collisions. They're hunting a mysterious, hypothetical particle called the Higgs boson. It is also possible they will make miniature black holes, or discover new dimensions of space-time.

Alvaro De Rujula is a staff scientist and theoretical physicist at CERN - which stands for Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire, or the European Council for Nuclear Research.

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