NorthIowaToday.com

Founded in 2010

News & Entertainment for Mason City, Clear Lake & the Entire North Iowa Region

Iowa DNR continues to help property owners after prescribed burn that went bad

VINTON, IOWA – Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) staff and a dozen AmeriCorps members returned Thursday and Friday of last week to help landowners impacted from the April 11 fire north of Vinton, clean up the damage.

The damage occurred when a prescribed fire by the DNR on the Red Fox Wildlife Area in the process of being extinguished jumped to adjoining properties to the east and began burning parts of 160 acres.

The Iowa DNR has contacted the impacted property owners and provided them with the options available to recover their losses.

“We are working to rectify the situation that happened last Friday and in the future by reviewing our burn policy, making adjustments on the landowner contact requirements and emphasizing the importance of the burn policy to our staff,” said Scott Peterson, wildlife district supervisor with the Iowa DNR.

Peterson said the investigation into the fire found that staff had failed to contact adjacent residents and those in the area where the smoke will disperse, which is part of the smoke management procedure.

The DNR uses burning as a management tool to help fend off encroaching woody species and nonnative plants in an effort to promote diverse native grasses and wildflowers. Burning removes the accumulated thatch and reinvigorates native plants by simulating what occurred naturally for centuries.

—-

An initial review of the prescribed fire in Benton County on April 11 found the National Weather Service was not in any way in error and that certain steps as part of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources internal burn policy were not followed.

“We never want something like this to happen and thankfully no one was injured and only minimal property damage occurred. The local fire departments did an excellent job responding and we will use this as a teaching point during our annual fire training,” said DNR Director Chuck Gipp.

The prescribed burn was going accordingly until the wind shifted. Once the wind shifted, staff began to extinguish the fire. The fire re-ignited and jumped to adjoining properties to the east. Once that happened, local responders were called in to help control the fire.

“The National Weather Service is a trusted partner of ours and they provided us with the correct information that we requested for Johnson County, but we failed to contact them for the burn in Benton County,” Gipp said.

The investigation found that staff had failed to contact adjacent residents and those in the area where the smoke will disperse, which is part of the smoke management procedure and Gipp said they will take steps to correct that through additional training.

Gipp said a full investigation into the fire will be conducted.

“We will not burn until we do these things in the future,” he said. “This is in our burn policy. We will revisit it and make sure our staff have a clear understanding of the importance that each of these steps have in a prescribed burn.”

The DNR uses burning as a management tool to help fend off encroaching woody species and nonnative plants in an effort to promote diverse native grasses and wildflowers. Burning removes the accumulated thatch and reinvigorates native plants by simulating what occurred naturally for centuries.

[poll random]

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

13 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Even more news:

Watercooler
Copyright 2024 – Internet Marketing Pros. of Iowa, Inc.
13
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x