Prescribed Fire

At Jewel Cave National Monument, prescribed fires were used to revive a stagnating forest, release locked-up nutrients by turning plants into ash, enrich soil in treated areas, and keep meadows open. Beginning in 1986, the National Park Service ignited prescribed fires in surrounding patches of forest because, without natural fires, hotter and more destructive fires had become a dangerous possibility. These carefully calculated burns, conducted by trained fire professionals under specific environmental conditions, cleaned the forest and helped protect visitors, facilities, wildlife habitat, and overall ecosystem health. When a wildfire swept through the monument in 2000, it burned cooler in the treated forest patches, helping the visitor center and nearby buildings survive even as other areas burned as an inferno.

Custer, South Dakota · United States