Applied Ecological Services, Inc.
Wisconsin Office
17921 Smith Road,
P. O. Box 256
Brodhead, WI 53520
Phone: 608.897.8641
Voicemail: 608.897.4898
AES Fax: 608.897.8486
TCRN Fax: 608.897.2044
Info@AppliedEco.com

Illinois Office
120 West Main St
W. Dundee, IL 60118
Phone: 847.844.9385
Fax: 847.844.8759

Kansas City Office
1904 Elm Street
Eudora, KS 66025
Phone 785.542.3090
Fax 785.542.3570

Minnesota Office
21938 Mushtown Rd
Prior Lake, MN 55372
Phone: 952.447.1919
Fax: 952.447.1920

East Coast Office
1100 E. Hector Street Suite #398
Conshohocken, PA 19428
Phone: 610.238.9088

Ecological expertise plays vital role in prescribed burns & other field services

Ecological "management" got a black eye this spring when the prescribed burn at New Mexico's Bandelier National Monument raged out of control. While the much publicized devastation has caused many to question the wisdom of intentional burning, conservation-minded people are well aware that burning and other management activities are unquestionably necessary to maintain the health of our preserved and restored natural areas.

Applying a prescribed burn

Last year, during one of the best burn seasons in recent memory, 3,500 acres at 59 forest preserve district sites were burned in the six-county Chicago region. In 1999, AES field service crews conducted 33 prescribed burns covering 844 acres in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. The benefit to our natural areas and ecological communities far outweighs the potential risk, according to AES Field Services Manager Bill McKinley.

"We prefer to call it 'prescribed' burning because each burn really does require its own unique 'prescription'," said McKinley, who oversees all AES burns as well as field services such as selective herbicide treatment, brush removal, seeding and plant installation, and streambank and shoreline restoration activities.

"Our job is to put into place the processes that allow the burn to progress in a predictable manner, and to make sure there is a stopping point," added Aaron Kubichka, AES restoration management supervisor. "Before we light the head fire - the hottest, strongest fire which travels with the wind direction - we make sure we have set up our fire breaks. Often we'll mow fire breaks from 10 to 20 feet wide, and we'll set 'back-burns' and 'side-burns' that widen the non-combustible perimeter and help to hem in the head fire. The key elements of safety are wind, temperature, and humidity, as well as fuel loads and retained moisture in the vegetation. Often, we'll get to a site and find that the conditions aren't right, so we simply postpone the burn. Because of this we usually have more burns scheduled than we're actually able to carry out." AES' Field Services Division attempts to burn each restoration site one year after it is seeded, and again annually for the first few years of its establishment. Once established, burns are repeated every three to five years, in spring or fall when plants are dormant.

Prescribed burning and AES management activities such as herbicide application and brush removal are all geared toward favoring native species in their battle against non-native, invasive species. As with burning, herbicide treatment is regulated by government agencies, and applicators must pass stringent tests to become licensed. Currently, AES employs three licensed herbicide applicators who are uniquely qualified to identify native plants as well as exotic species, to determine specific herbicides to accomplish ecological objectives, and to select the proper methods of application that avoid collateral damage to adjacent native plants.

On the seasonal heels of herbiciding (April - October), an AES field crew spends its winters selectively removing aggressive, exotic brush species such as European buckthorn, Black locust and Honeysuckle. These non-native invaders create a dense canopy that shades and suppresses the growth of ground-story vegetation in savanna and woodland environments. When the natives can't grow, the resulting bare ground erodes with each rainstorm into our lakes and streams. This creates sedimentation and turbidity in our waters, with resulting negative effects for fish, aquatic organisms and other wildlife that depend on healthy aquatic ecosystems.

The success of our "on-the-ground" field services is greatly augmented by the ecological expertise of our consulting staff which is able to share valuable information with field crews regarding specific behaviors of each distinct species, succession of plant communities, etc. It's a pool of knowledge that goes back to good science.

"We get a lot of support from our ecological consultants, and that's one of the advantages that really sets us apart," said McKinley. "It's real-time ecology."

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