Several Prescribed Burns In Will County Today

Several prescribed burns are scheduled to take place today at Lockport Prairie East Preserve in Lockport and Hadley Valley Preserve, between Gougar Road and Interstate 355, in New Lenox and Homer townships. Plus, Braidwood Dunes and Savanna Nature Preserve, Sand Ridge Savanna Preserve and Kankakee Sands Preserve, all in southern Will County.

Monee Reservoir in Monee Township, Riverview Farmstead Preserve in Naperville and the Wauponsee Glacial Trail, south of Doyle Road will also be the site of a prescribed burn today.

Residents living within a half-mile of a burn site are notified at the beginning of burn season via postcards and the night before a scheduled burn through reverse 911 calls to landlines. Cell phones can be registered to receive reverse 911 calls through the Will County Emergency Management Agency.

Prescribed burning is an important tool used by the Forest Preserve to restore and strengthen natural plant communities to the lands the District manages. Fire is used to reduce the competition between weedy species and native species and to encourage better establishment of the native vegetation which slowly displaces the weeds. The process also returns nutrients to the soil, making them readily available for the next generation of vegetation growth.

The prescribed burn season spans mid-October to mid-April when most vegetation and many animals are dormant.