Photo By Scott Sturkol | Fort McCoy, Wis., prescribed burn team members oversee a prescribed burn May 7, 2020,...... read more read more
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Fort McCoy, Wis., prescribed burn team members oversaw a prescribed burn May 7, 2020, along the railroad tracks on South Post at the installation.
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; Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security; and the Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, under contract with the post.
Prescribed burns also improve wildlife habitat, control invasive plant species, restore and maintain native plant communities, and reduce wildfire potential, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
“Prescribed burns benefit the environment many ways and are one of the tools we can use on a large scale to improve our wild habitat,” said Fort McCoy Forester Charles Mentzel with the Directorate of Public Works Natural Resources Branch.
Mentzel said prescribed burns help set back invasive species, and they burn up their seed banks. Burns also give native species an opportunity to compete against some of the non-native species, as many native species depend on fire to help stimulate them and set back non-native species.
The burns also set back small trees and shrubs and make them grow again from the stump,” Mentzel said. “This allows for more food for deer and other animals and removes unwanted (tree) species from the understory, such as white pines growing underneath an oak forest.”
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 each year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
| Date Taken: | 05.22.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 05.22.2020 10:04 |
| Story ID: | 370641 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 19 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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