There is a new initiative coming to the RM of Stuartburn to help residents of the region get fire back to the land safely. Laura Reeves is a botanist from southeast who used to work for Manitoba Tallgrass Prairie Reserve. Reeves now owns Prairie Shore Botanicals, teaching classes on wilderness skills, among other things.
Laura Reeves (Photo credit: Cindy Balkwill)Reeves says, “The Stuartburn Prescribed Burn Association is at its basic, it's just neighbors helping neighbors.”
She continues, “Fire is actually a natural part of the Tall Grass Prairie/Aspen Parkland ecosystem. It's believed fire would naturally have come through here every three to five years. It helps to refresh, basically reset, the prairie grasses and wildflowers. It helps in seed germination. It helps to keep the trees and shrubs from overgrowing the open meadows, so it's a natural part of the ecosystem.”
However, she notes lately there has been a lot of fire suppression.
“People are scared of fire, and there's good reason for that, but we need to get it back on the land and do it safely rather than having these raging wildfires coming through every so often myself, here we had a fire come through in 2011. And if we can get the fire back on the land in a safe way, kind of do controlled burns, we can reduce the fuel loads, so those wildfires aren't as dangerous.”
Residents and firefighters in a prescribed burn training class. (Photo credit: Canadian Prairies Prescribed Fire Exchange)Reeves says they are hoping to get landowners organized, and then by providing training opportunities in prescribed burning, they’ll be able to help each other.
"One of the biggest problems we found in talking amongst neighbors, is a lack of manpower and equipment. Our neighbors want to get a fire on their pasture because it's overgrown with dead grasses and there's not much for the cattle to graze anymore. So, if we team up, we can consolidate our equipment, maybe somebody's got an ATV, another one has a water backpack, somebody's got shovels, walkie talkies, whatever it is that we need, we can combine what we have and get this job done.”
Reeves note that besides farmland, forests are also fire dependent. “They're also used to having fires go through them every so often to freshen them up.”
"It could be anything. If you've only got a small lot, maybe there's people in town (Vita or Stuartburn) that just have some woods in their backyard that they would like to put a fire through as wildfire prevention, well, maybe then get the neighbors together can do three lots at once. You know, just by helping each other out.”
Reeves says the conversation to start the Prescribed Burn Association came about as residents of the southeast were sharing ideas about land management. And when they looked deeper into it, “We said, wow! That's great! We can make this community wide. We can make this across the RM rather than just within our two square miles of neighbors here. So, we decided to expand our efforts.”
“The RM of Stuartburn is on board. We've got the Stuartburn Fire Department on board. And the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Canadian Prairies Prescribed Fire Exchange, are all behind us on this, and we've actually applied for a grant with the help of the RM, and we're hopeful we'll get something from that that will help us to get equipment and training opportunities to people as well.”
Reeves acknowledges that many residents fear fire, got a good reason. “Mostly because we've not allowed it for so long. Fuel levels have accumulated for so long, and that's when fires get scary when you've got 10 years, 15 years and 50 years of fuel.”
By fuel, Reeves means grasses, branches and leaves that have accumulated over the years. “And when that stuff gets dry, boy, does that ignite. When you’ve got a dry year with a bunch of wind, you know, somebody tosses a cigarette butt out the window, or an accident happens, you know, like, that's a recipe for disaster. So, if you can keep low level fires then when you've got a better chance of them not getting out of control.”
“So, if we can work together with the Nature Conservancy to burn, maybe we get together with landowners to burn together, we can help each other. There are different ways that we can help prevent fires from just racing through large tracts of land.”
Reeves hopes this will also help local firefighters with training. She notes this will also help local farmers and residents know more about fire safety and what to do in case of a fire-related emergency.
"Now, you've got other people that are trained who might be able to help. We might have the equipment available, as we have plans to purchase equipment for the RM, which will become communally available. People might be able to rent it out or they'll use it for their own purposes.”
Right now, she says, they are getting people organized in order to make that happen, “and to get it done safely.”
Reeves and several others from the Stuartburn Prescribed Burn Association will be making a presentation at the next RM of Stuartburn council meeting on Thursday, March 21, 2024, at 7pm in the council chambers in Vita.
“We'll talk about how we're going to be organized and how people can get involved, and yeah, basically our next step's training opportunities. So, there's going to be a lot of information provided, and hopefully people will want to get involved, and at least, if nothing else, they'll spread the word, right.”
Reeves notes there are currently three people on the steering committee of the Stuartburn Prescribed Burn Association including herself a resident of Gardenton with prescribed fire experience with the Manitoba Tall Grass Prairie Preserve. Then there's Bert Baumgartner, a former volunteer firefighter in Stuartburn, and Kale Cohen, a Winnipeg resident with extensive prescribed fire experience and training capability.
Bert Baumgartner (photo supplied)
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