Fire is common in the western Great Plains, but much less well studied than in eastern prairies. Wildfires most commonly occur in July and August in these semi-arid rangelands covered with cool-season grasses, but the impact of summer fires has not been well researched.
In the semiarid shortgrass steppe region of the Great Plains, interest in prescribed fire as a management tool is rising. A growing body of literature from this region highlights the utility of fire in controlling undesirable species, managing habitat structure, and improving forage, but few seek to directly examine the mechanisms by which burning alters the ecosystem.
Using fire during the growing season is a promising new way to manage sericea lespedea in tallgrass prairies. Growing season burns offer advantages beyond sericea control, including easier to contain fires and a second chance to burn acres omitted during the dormant season.
The Great Plains of North America has experienced exponential increases in wildfires since 1985, with a 400% increase in area burned and more than 300% increase in number of wildfires.
Ben Wheeler has produced a really nice publication on fire breaks. He reviews several construction types and provides criteria for choosing and implementing them.
Landowner perception of information about prescribed burning: Influence on the application of this land management tool in the Southern Great Plains by: Lars Coleman, Carissa Wonkka, Morgan Treadwell, and Urs Kreuter of Texas A&M University
The Great Plains of the US is characterized by grassland communities. Fire plays an important role in maintaining these grasslands. However, it has been difficult to understand how much fire occurs in the Great Plains and how fire occurrence might vary across the region.
Japanese brome, Russian knapweed, spotted knapweed, and leafy spurge are invasive, non-native weeds in the northern prairies of the central United States. Because they reproduce by seed, destroying the seed with fire may be one way to control these plants. Knowing the fire characteristics that will kill the seeds is important to using this method of control.