Devils Tower Plans Prescribed Fire

Press Release – Devils Tower National Monument will implement a prescribed burn this fall as conditions permit.  Fire management officials from the Northern Great Plains Fire Office and Devils Tower National Monument plan to burn 171 acres in the North Terrace Unit during the next few weeks.  The last time a prescribed burn was completed in the North Terrace Unit was during the fall of 2005.

The burn is needed to remove build-up of dead fuels and woody herbaceous growth and encourage the growth of native prairie grasses and forbs. Prescribed burns return a key natural process to the landscape, improve the health of the ecosystem under controlled conditions, and lessen the chance of wildland fires.

Prescribed burns are carefully planned, conducted within an approved boundary and ignited only when specific weather conditions such as humidity, fuel moisture, wind speed and direction and weather forecasts are favorable.   If conditions are not acceptable on the scheduled day of the burn, it will be postponed until desirable conditions return.