Homestead NHP conducts spring prescribed burn

BEATRICE, NEB. - The Homestead National Historical Park is making aggressive efforts at preserving its prairie and oak woodlands for years to come.

Last week, the park held its spring prescribed burn. Program Manager Amy Genke explained the importance of burns at Homestead.

“The reason we do prescribed fire here at Homestead is it really helps to maintain the native [plant] species,” Genie said. “A lot of those species thrive on fire, and depend on fire, but it also helps to reduce the non-native invasive species as well. They’re not as adapted to fire, they don’t thrive on fire, so it’s critical to maintain prairie health at the park.”

Several departments were on hand to conduct the burn, including local outlets such as Beatrice Rural Fire, but also a group from Arkansas.

“It’s critical to have our co-workers in the national park service to come help with these prescribed burns,” Genke said. “We’ve had an out 15-16 individuals come in to help with this fire.”

With an unusually warm and dry winter nearing its end, the risk for high fire danger has been present. After wildfires torched over 2600 acres in Jefferson County last year, officials recommend extra caution with any sort of burning. Mike Johnson is the Regional Fire Information Officer for the National Park Service in the midwest. He explained a strict protocol for burning procedures.

“We have a prescription set in place that includes specific wind directions, speed, and humidity,” Johnson said. “This unit here requires a north wind, because otherwise we’d impact the high way and some neighbors. A few weeks ago we had a chance with a north wind, but the wind was really high, so we were exceeding our conditions.”