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Natural Fire

Some ecosystems depend on periodic fires to maintain the habitats which make up the ecosystem. In these fire adapted areas, fire promotes plant and wildlife diversity and burns away accumulations of live and dead plant material (leaves, branches, trees).

FIRE DEPENDENT ECOSYSTEM MAP

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	•	Common in Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas and the Ohio Valley.
	•	Natural Fires in this ecosystem usually occur in five- to ten-year cycles.
	•	Primarily made up of grasses and forbs, with some shrubs and trees.
	•	Growth of native species such as big bluestem, little bluestem, and Indian grass all increase significantly following a fire.
	•	Fire in tallgrass prairies acts to burn aboveground biomass, killing woody plants, allowing sunlight to reach the soil, and changing the soil pH and nutrient availability.
	•	Because grass provides a low quality of fuel, grassland fires usually are not intense.
	•	When fire is removed from a prairie ecosystem, woody shrubs and trees eventually replace grasses and forbs.

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Fire is Nature's Housekeeper

Fires have burned regularly, consuming vegetation, accumulations of insects and diseases, and triggering a rebirth of forests.

Many plants have evolved adaptations that protect them as a species against the effects of wildland fire, and some are even strengthened by it.

Nearly every region in the country has some kind of fire dependent plant or tree.

Some ecosystems such as deserts are not fire dependent and fire needs to be put out quickly to reduce damage.