Flint Hills Kansas Prairie Burn Poster

Every spring they burn the prairie grasses in the Flint Hills of Kansas. It's beautiful and exciting. The burn is mostly performed by the ranchers...by cowboys. The tallgrass prairie biome depends on prairie fires, a form of wildfire, for its survival and renewal. Tree seedlings and intrusive alien species without fire tolerance are eliminated by periodic fires. Such fires may either be set by humans (for example, Native Americans used fires to drive bison and improve hunting, travel, and visibility) or started naturally by lightning. Researchers' attempts to re-establish small sections of tallgrass prairie in arboretum fashion were unsuccessful until they began to use controlled burns