Meadow Management

By: Tom Koritansky, Natural Resource Manager

Meadows and old fields in Lake Metroparks offer refuge to many species of wildlife. Since these habitats are found in such short supply throughout Lake County, they are important areas for conservation. Lake Metroparks works to manage valuable habitats that are capable of providing food, water, shelter and space that all wild animals need in order to survive and thrive. 

For more than a decade, Lake Metroparks has been integrating populations of warm-season grasses into its meadows. These species include switchgrass, big bluestem and Indian grass that are adapted to grow in a variety of temperature and moisture regimes. In addition to being drought tolerant and long lasting, warm-season grasses are preferred over their cool-season counterparts since their growth habit allows birds and small mammals better ease of movement and plenty of overhead cover capable of providing safe areas for breeding, rearing young and foraging. 

Meadows and old fields found throughout Lake County and northeast Ohio occasionally require some upkeep so that they remain healthy and productive. Without any care given to these areas, meadows would eventually become forests and the plants and animals that call those habitats home would likely disappear. One method used to maintain healthy meadows is to periodically burn them. The process, known as a prescribed burn, involves the planned and detailed use of fire over designated areas conducted under particular environmental conditions to achieve desired management goals.

Fire is an extremely useful tool in maintaining meadows and other environments. It has been used throughout history by Native Americans to improve hunting land, clear areas of dense vegetation for crops, and to encourage the growth of plants used for food. As fire moves through an area removing undesirable vegetation, nutrients held in old plant growth are recycled, helping to invigorate the growth of new more desirable plants. Other benefits of using fire as a management tool include reducing the spread of pests and disease, providing forage for wildlife and reducing wildfire danger by removing excess amounts of fuel. These benefits contribute to forming an improved habitat that promotes the growth of desirable plants capable of supporting varieties of wildlife.

Fire progresses within a stand of switchgrass at Lake Erie Bluffs. Tilled firebreaks are installed to contain fires inside areas intended to be burned.

Lake Metroparks’ use of fire is implemented with other management strategies to support the long-term health and well-being of its meadows. The effectiveness of fire in reducing exotic species, undesirable grasses and woody plants that often overrun meadows if left unchecked, renders it an especially useful tool that is preferred over other strategies. Burns generally take place during the spring after the last snowmelt around the time when early-emerging cool-season grasses start actively growing. Burns taking place at this time provide a competitive advantage to the more desirable warm-season grasses that will emerge later in the spring.

Natural resources staff monitor the progress of a burn at Lake Erie Bluffs.

The blackened landscape after a prescribed fire is temporary; plants that were burned will quickly begin to regrow. The warm season grasses and native wildflowers planted here thrive after a prescribed burn. New sprouts may be noticed as early as two weeks after a burn. Plants that were burned will be well on their way to regrowth about one month after a burn. These plants will continue to grow throughout the spring and summer and as they grow, evidence of the burn will become unnoticeable. Later this summer, look for a lush meadow with colorful blooming wildflowers.

Burns have become an important part of meadow and old field management at parks like Girdled Road Reservation, Indian Point Park, Penitentiary Glen Reservation and Hidden Valley Park. Each year, plots and fields are burned at particular parks on a three-year rotation. Burning on this schedule maintains the warm-season grasses and accommodates fire-sensitive species that require these areas for successful reproduction.     

Natural resources staff carefully monitor weather and other conditions in the field prior to a burn. Factors such as temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and fuel moisture affect the behavior of a fire. Burn managers must be aware of these conditions to ensure that safety is maintained throughout a burn, smoke is carried away from sensitive areas and the desired management goals of a burn are achieved. After a long winter as our natural areas begin to spring back to life, our team of experienced technicians will get fired up to create quality habitats throughout the park district.