Photo by Nebraska Department of Game and Parks Doug Whisenhunt of the Curtis Natural Resources and Conservation Service uses a drip torch to ignite a controlled burn on Stan Pilcher's pasture land near Curtis.

Photo by Nebraska Department of Game and Parks Smoke drifts in the background as Lara Fondow, center, extends a burn last spring. LCRA members and the Hershey Fire Department look on.

In spring 2006, 1,480 acres of grass and cedar trees went up in flames in Cut Creek Canyon in the loess canyon area southeast of North Platte. The fire spread rapidly through early grasses, and cedar trees burned like torches.

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That’s just what landowners Stan Pilcher, Dwayne Dodson and Ivan Mortenson ordered.

The loess canyon area, 400-square miles of Lincoln, Dawson, and Frontier counties, has gradually lost grazing land and wildlife to red cedar trees and early, non-native grasses.

Loess is silty, windblown (aeolian) sediment. It generally occurs as a widespread blanket deposit that covers areas of hundreds of square kilometers and tens of meters thick. Loess often stands in either steep or vertical faces. It is thought to have been blown by strong winds from river valleys into the hills nearby.

Restoration efforts began almost a decade ago, said Lara Fondow, loess canyon coordinating wildlife biologist. Fondow talked to an audience at the North Platte Public Library June 25.

“A group of landowners and conservation specialists from the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Frontier County recognized the need to put fire back in their landscape,” she said. “They also realized that nobody could do it on their own, so they formed the Loess Canyons Rangeland Alliance, a ‘prescribed burn’ association.”

Since 2002, the LCRA has cleared nearly 10,000 acres using prescribed burns and mechanical means, and more than 7,000 acres are scheduled in the future.

Fondow, whose position is partnered by Quail Forever and Nebraska Game and Parks, is trained to do burns. She began working with the LCRA in 2007.

Fire in the canyons is a serious matter. A grant bought needed equipment to safely pull off the burns, Fondow said.

“It takes a lot of people, and there’s a long check-off list of requirements for landowners who are burning,” she said.

“Notifying your neighbors is one of those. Sometimes they say, ‘Why don’t you come and burn a little bit of our place, too?’ and sometimes they say, ‘Just keep it off my property.’” Fondow laughed. “But then they show up and run a hose or help in some way.”

A “burn boss” is also required. Currently Scott Stout, an association member who lives in Cottonwood Canyon, oversees the burns for the 25-member group, she said.

The Nebraska Natural Legacy Project designated the canyons a Biologically Unique Landscape, worthy of preservation and funding to help the high costs of restoration. Other conservation agencies also contribute. Traditionally independent, many ranchers were skeptical at first.

“Initially there wasn’t a lot of interest in the project,” Fondow said, “because of misconceptions that it was an access program, or that requirements were too stringent.

“People were wary, until we just got a couple of people to start working with us,” she said. “As soon as trees starting falling and the landscape began to look different, suddenly my phone started ringing off the hook. I have about 40 people on my interested landowners list right now.”

Rancher Rich Bringelson, who had a prescribed burn on his Box Elder Canyon ranch this spring, said it’s important that urban people understand the need for the burns.

“I’ve been watching the canyons for 60 years and unless we deal with it now, our grandkids and great grandkids will see a total canopy of cedars,” he said.

“Lara is probably one of the top 20 prescribed burn people in this area,” Bringelson said. “She runs a mean torch, and she talks not from just knowledge of it, but from experience.”

LCRA president Stan Pilcher, who has hosted a number of prescribed burns on his land, agrees.

“Her dedication and enthusiasm in working with landowners through the Nebraska Natural Legacy program, Pheasants Forever, LCRA and NRCS has helped account for several thousand acres of cedar removal,” Pilcher said, “reclaiming this land for both livestock and wildlife.”

Fondow’s prior experience with controlled burns came with the federal government and U.S. Fish and Wildlife programs.

“But I feel just as comfortable on the fire line with these guys,” she said. “They really are invested in this landscape and they really care. They know their neighbors whose pasture they don’t want to burn and they know what it means.”

The LCRA burns can also help train local volunteer fire departments, Fondow said.

“A lot of them might show up at a burning – the Farnam Fire Department came to one we had near Moorefield this spring,” she said. “Curtis has come out and helped, and Hershey and Maxwell, too.

“I help teach fire school and I always say fire is the best teacher of fire — being out there and seeing how it behaves under different conditions and working with good mentors,” Fondow said.

Education is a great part of the LCRA’s mission, and they conduct burn tours that are open to the public every fall. They added another burn tour this spring, Fondow said.

“Another great thing about the burning efforts — and I’ve heard a lot of landowners say this — it is really fostering a sense of community out there,” Fondow said. “The burns are like a branding, where everyone turns out and brings their equipment and helps out. It’s really neat to be a part of it.”

Not elimination

The program is not intended to remove all cedars, which are native to the canyons.

“They do provide wildlife value,” Fondow said, “like thermal cover and food for birds. We aren’t trying to get rid of every cedar, but to keep them from marching out on what should be open prairie for grassland, nesting birds and wildlife that won’t tolerate a cedar forest.”