Members of the Fort McCoy prescribed burn team made an effort to improve safety from fire along the rail corridor on the installation March 13 by completing a prescribed burn.

The post prescribed burn team includes personnel with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Emergency Services Fire Department; Directorate of Public Works (DPW) Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch (NRB); Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security; and the Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands in partnership with the post.

For this prescribed burn, the team met on near the installation border not far from family housing on South Post, then carefully started the burn in sections to be able to manage it successfully and be able to adjust to any wind conditions.

In all, the team conducted the event for approximately 4 hours to complete the area they wanted to accomplish that day.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/forestfire/prescribedfire, prescribed burns not just reduce fire danger, they also improve the habitat of plants and more.

“Fire and wildlife have a historic and complex relationship in grassland, wetland, and savannah communities,” the website states. “Prescribed fire is rarely lethal to most wildlife, yet has a profound effect on habitat by increasing the number of native plant and animal species present food sources for wildlife. The wildlife species that benefit most from prescribed fire are those that rely on open habitat in one or more stages of their life cycle. Examples of these animals are grassland birds, sharp-tailed grouse, waterfowl and pheasant.

“Prescribed burns also help to stimulate flowering herbaceous plants (forbs) — a source of food for white-tailed deer,” the website states. “Additionally, wildflower abundance and diversity support a wide variety of insects and other invertebrates, a food source that provides benefits all the way up the food chain.”

Fort McCoy Forester Charles Mentzel, who is part of the prescribed burn team with the NRB, said in a past news article that prescribed burns, generally, are done in the spring and fall seasons because weather conditions are most favorable at those times.

Mentzel also said the area of this burn is often one of the first to get done on post.

“We learned many years ago to burn the south slopes (along the tracks) as soon as they are cleared of snow,” Mentzel said in a past article. “When everything is surrounded by snow, we cut our man-hours well over half. So, we keep an eye on conditions and burn it when it is ready.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also explains benefits of prescribed burns. The department’s web page at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov states “prescribed burns serve many purposes.” They include controlling undesirable vegetation; preparing sites for harvesting, planting or seeding; controlling plant disease; reducing wildfire hazards; improving wildlife habitat; improving plant production quantity and quality; and removing debris. The burns also enhance seed production, facilitating the distribution of grazing and browsing animals, restoring and maintaining ecological sites, and managing native plant diversity and composition.

“Prescribed burning is fire applied to a predetermined area within a prescribed set of conditions, dates, and with appropriate safety precautions to achieve specific purposes,” the USDA site states. “Prescribed burning can be applied to forest land, grass-land, pastureland, wildlife land, hay land and other land uses as appropriate.”

More prescribed burns will likely take place across Fort McCoy during spring 2025 as conditions permit.

Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”

Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.

The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.

Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”

Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”