Restoring the Land With Fire 🔥
Our spring prescribed-burn season was our most successful one yet.
Fire can be heartbreakingly destructive, but it can also be a powerful tool when used carefully—as Indigenous people have known for thousands of years. Here at the Sharing Our Roots Farm, we’ve been using fire as a tool to help manage our prairies and wetlands since 2021.
We recently wrapped up our spring prescribed-burn season, which was our most successful one yet. We safely burned more than 20 acres of land over two days in May, with the help of many volunteers.
Aerial footage of one of the burn areas at the SOR Farm, taken on May 8.
A few benefits of partnering with fire:
reduces wildfire risk by clearing out old brush
makes space for native plants to emerge and seeds to germinate (some of which only do so with fire)
adds nutrients to the soil and rejuvenates habitat
limits the spread of invasive species
“It’s a big deal, because to mow invasive grasses is next to impossible when they’re in saturated soils like a wetland, so it would have to be done by hand with weed whips or sickles,” says SOR Natural Lands Manager Nic Nelson. “So doing it with a controlled burn instead, in a single burn day with 15 acres, that would’ve been hundreds of hours of work [by hand].”
Below you can see before-and-after photos taken by our aerial drone nearly a month apart, showing an initial burn day on May 8 and the regrowth that was stimulated over the next few weeks.
“Plants that are adapted to these frequent fire ecosystems, some of them are like, ‘This is my moment,’ and they go for it—they grow bigger and stronger and have more flowers,” says Nelson, who has been overseeing prescribed burns at the SOR Farm since 2021. “They also know that the soil’s open to drop seed, so it’s generally a bumper crop for seed production.”
Big thanks to Nic Nelson and all the staff and volunteers who helped safely manage our prescribed burns. And thank you to the Minnesota Board of Water & Soil Resources, Dakota County Land Conservation Department, and Carleton College for financially supporting this work to help our natural lands thrive.
SOR Community Connector Wendy Romero and many other volunteers helped ensure the safety of our spring burns.
Want to volunteer to help at our prescribed burns in the fall? There’s no experience necessary—we’ll provide training and safety equipment. Enter your email address below to be notified of fall prescribed-burn volunteer opportunities.
As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, Sharing Our Roots relies on community donations to fund our work restoring land and providing immigrant, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ farmers with essential support. If you are able and inspired, please join us in our work to heal our lands and prepare emerging farmers by contributing a one-time or recurring donation. Thank you!
