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August 18, 2016
Sand to Smoke: Fire in Ohio’s Oak Openings, Toledo Metro Area, Ohio
Local land managers and researchers guided us on an exploration of four different sites connected by the Green Ribbon Initiative. Presenters included researchers from the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University and land managers from Toledo Metroparks, The Olander Park District, and The Nature Conservancy.
Topics included:
- connecting fire ecology to site- and watershed-level impacts - fire reduces leaf litter and nitrogen accumulation in uplands to restore niches for native plants and wildlife, and also reduces eutrophication of nearby Lake Erie
- ecosystem restoration in fragemented habitats - effects of fire on vegetation and a rare wildlife species, Eastern Box Turtle
- a management agreement with the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority that maintains FAA-regulated open space through prescribed fire
- burning in the Wildland-Urban Interface: smoke management and public engagement as keys to success
- burning across savanna-prairie-wetland boundaries to restore historic vegetation mosaics
- using prescribed fire to manage reconstructed prairies