Prescribed Burn at Woodland Park

If you were wondering what all the smoke was over by Woodland Park, well, it was our annual prescribed burn (Prescribed Fires and Controlled Burns). WNDR: WDNR - Prescribed Burns.

The burns are part of the effort to restore the park to an oak savanna and to implement the Complete Ecological Assessment & Management Plan by Scott Taylor of Taylor Conservation L.L.C.

Here are some excellent maps from that study: Maps From Study. The city has made significant progress toward reducing the invasive in the park. Black locusts have been cut and girdled, garlic mustard has been sprayed, burned and pulled, buckthorn has been cut and sprayed. The cutting and spraying has been done by city-hired contractors and city crews. Kudos to city park and rec director Jake Anderson for taking an active role in seeing that the plan gets implemented. The burns have been done by volunteers.

Woodland Park-Garlic Mustard Management.pdf
Woodland Park-Buckthorn Mangagement.pdf
Woodland Park-Honeysuckle, Black Locust & Norway Maple.pdf

The burn today was easily the most complete and successful of any that we have done there, probably due to the relatively dry conditions this spring. The woods are actually harder to burn than prairies due to higher moisture content and humidity.

The next phase will include planting wild grasses and wild flowers in the open area on the Monona Drive side near David's Jamaican.