Nebraska Game and Parks, the Crawford Volunteer Fire Department, and the U-S Forest Service are joining forces late this afternoon for a 70-acre prescribed burn on a pasture in the Peterson Wildlife Area southwest of Crawford.
Game and Parks spokesman Rick Arnold says the prescribed burn will likely be ignited between 5:00 and 5:30 with two main purposes: preparing the land for re-seeding and training local firefighters.
Arnold says some wild pastures were planted to bluegrass decades ago, a move range management experts and wildlife biologists now call a mistake because bluegrass doesn’t do as well as the grasses that are native to this region.
Arnold says the project was brought to Game and Parks and funded by Pheasants Forever as a way to improve the habitat of upland game birds
Arnold says the burn was scheduled now because even though the wildland fire danger is high, the forecast conditions and the presence of a significant number of firefighters mean it can be done safely.