Fire is a lost tradition in Missouri but this council is reigniting the practice

French Jesuit priest Louis Vivier in 1750 described what 70 years later became the state of Missouri, and in his writings he told of Native Americans there setting fires to the prairies. “The trees are almost as thinly scattered as in our public promenades,” he wrote, and “the Savages set fire to the prairies toward the end of the autumn, when the grass is dry; the fire spreads everywhere and destroys most of the young trees.”
Vivier was right about fire being a frequent occurrence in Missouri, as reported in a feature story on KSDK.com. Midwest tribes had been purposely setting fire to the grasslands and prairies for centuries. They recognized the essential role fire played in the prairie ecosystem, and that knowledge, and the practice of managed burns, is being rekindled by the Missouri Prescribed Fire Council, a coalition of landowners and experts attempting to bring the state’s grasslands back to their once-thriving status.
PHOTO: Missouri Prescribed Fire Council

These practices have been recorded nationwide as the philosophy of fire as medicine, according to the National Park Service.

European colonists’ response to the tradition of cultural burning was the implementation of a century-long fire suppression regime. Missouri’s disappearing prairies in part have the resultant lack of fire to blame. Unregulated tree growth, known as woody plant encroachment into tallgrass prairie environments, has progressed throughout the Midwest as areas of saplings develop without needed periodic fire.

Missouri’s Ozark region, for instance, has existed in the “not enough fire” category for much of recent history, causing a drop in biodiversity and the domination of the landscape by oak, hickory, and cedar trees, according to the University of Washington and others.

The Missouri Prescribed Fire Council, though, is trying to reverse that suppression regime and reintroduce managed burns back into the state for the health of its natural environment.

“Almost all of Missouri’s natural plant communities have adapted with fire,” said Wes Buchheit, councilmember and prescribed fire coordinator biologist with Pheasants Forever & Quail Forever. “Fire is a natural tool and prescribed fire is mimicking that natural process in a more controlled setting … you can benefit a lot of different species, plant and animal, with prescribed fire.”

About 93 percent of Missouri’s 44.6 million acres is privately owned, according to the Missouri Department of Conservation. The lack of public land means any substantive prescribed burning must come through community collaboration. In response to multiple recent historic wildfire seasons, a movement of Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs) has grown nationwide. Many RxFire efforts are led by federal agencies, but these PBAs are instead a collaboration among landowners. The Missouri Prescribed Fire Council is part of that growing movement, and because wildfires haven’t been a prevalent issue for Missourians, private landowners in the state haven’t been as hesitant to participate in prescribed burning as other wildfire-prone states.

Prescribed fires have burned tens of thousands of acres in 95 of Missouri’s 114 counties between 2020 and 2022, council data showed. Of those, just over 1 percent have escaped control, and most burned just 0.1 acres or less, which is on par with national averages. “The only time that folks ever heard about prescribed fire is when there’s an ‘oops,'” says Council Chair Mark Howell. “They don’t hear about the other almost 99 percent of the time that things go perfectly well.”

Credit: Missouri Prescribed Fire Council

Genius arsonist sentenced in Missouri

A Missouri man was sentenced today to 12½ years in prison for arson on the Mark Twain National Forest and assault of a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer; U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh sentenced Lucas G. Henson, 37, of Iron County, Missouri, and ordered him to pay the USFS about $7,200 in suppression costs for the fires he set. According to a report by ky3.com Henson pleaded guilty in March to assaulting the LEO, along with arson and felon in possession of a firearm.

KSDK News reported that Henson last year set three fires across Butler and Wayne counties, which damaged seven or eight acres of National Forest Land. He also pointed a crossbow at a Forest Service officer.

U.S. Attorney Sayler Fleming of the Eastern District of Missouri said Henson was in the forest after he’d crashed a stolen truck while fleeing from the truck’s owner. He also faced multiple other charges including first-degree robbery, stealing a motor vehicle, and resisting arrest.

He is due in New Madrid County Circuit Court in July.

According to Fleming, Henson was out on bond after being charged with stealing and drug offenses, when he stole a Ford van on October 22, 2022 near Poplar Bluff. He abandoned the van when it ran out of gas. Later that day, he broke into a camper and stole items from it. The next day, he stole a Dodge pickup, then burglarized a home and stole a 9mm handgun. He also stole a crossbow from a workshop near that home.

When the truck’s owner found Henson, Henson pointed the 9mm at him and drove away. Law enforcement officers then joined the pursuit. Henson eventually crashed the truck on Mark Twain National Forest land, then started a fire and attempted to burn the handgun 😜 and the other stolen items before trying to escape into the forest.

Officers began tracking Henson with dogs, and when they approached he started his next fire. Henson started another fire when officers approached him again.

He later aimed a crossbow at a U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officer, as well as other officers, before taking off again. He was eventually caught near the Black River. Besides the USFS the case was investigated by the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Shelton prosecuted the case.

THANKS and a tip of the hardhat to Dale.

Roughly half of small Missouri town burned Saturday

Wooldridge Fire, October 22, 2022
Wooldridge Fire, October 22, 2022. Photo by Cooper County Fire Protection District

A wildfire burned about half of the small town of Wooldridge, Missouri Saturday. The fire started from a combine that was harvesting crops and spread into the town pushed by 25 to 35 mph winds with low relative humidity.

Authorities said 23 structures were destroyed or heavily damaged. No one was killed and one person was taken to a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, but the entire town of 100 people had to be evacuated.

Wooldridge Fire, October 22, 2022
Wooldridge Fire, October 22, 2022. Photo by Cooper County Fire Protection District

The fire spread into land managed by Big Muddy Fish and Wildlife Refuge.

Interstate 70 was closed due to smoke for about two hours Saturday evening as the 3,000-acre fire was burning.

The Missouri Statewide Mutual Aid system was activated and more than 50 fire departments from  across the state responded.

Wooldridge Fire, October 22, 2022
Wooldridge Fire, October 22, 2022. Photo by Cooper County Fire Protection District

Two Missouri firefighters entrapped and injured in grass fire

Fort Osage Fire Protection District
Fort Osage Fire Protection District

Friday afternoon a fire that started in an outbuilding near Buckner, Missouri had spread to several acres when a brush truck operated by the Fort Osage Fire Protection District became surrounded by heavy smoke.

The crew left the truck and attempted to escape from the area, announcing “May Day” on the radio. Other crews immediately came to their aid but two of the personnel on the brush truck were injured, and the truck was destroyed.

One of the firefighters was released from the hospital Friday night and the other remains in serious condition.

The fire ultimately grew to 15 acres and destroyed several small outbuildings before being brought under control at 4:05 p.m. Friday. Multiple homes were endangered but were saved by firefighters.

Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Matt.

Forest Service needs help identifying thieves who stole Osbourne Fire Finder

From a lookout tower near Bunker, Missouri

Mark Twain NF thieves, 2021
Mark Twain NF thieves, 2021.

The Mark Twain National Forest needs your help in identifying individuals seen in photos and videos stealing from the Marcoot Lookout Tower near Bunker, Missouri in 2021. They are suspected of removing the Osborne Fire Finder, an essential device which assists lookouts in pinpointing the exact location of smoke cross referenced with a map. They are historical items and are very difficult to replace.

Example of Osbourne Fire Finder
Example of an Osbourne Fire Finder.

If you have any information that can help catch these thieves, please call the Mark Twain National Forest’s Patrol Captain Casey Hutsell at 573-341-7463.

Mark Twain NF thieves, 2021
Mark Twain NF suspects, 2021.
Mark Twain NF thieves, 2021
Mark Twain NF suspect, 2021.

Several videos of the thieves are posted on the Forest’s Facebook page in the comment section of the post about this incident.

After photos were posted about a burglary at a lookout tower in Oregon in August, one of the suspects was arrested and later indicted by a Grand Jury. In that case the thieves stole batteries, electronic equipment, and solar panels used to power the tower’s fire detection camera.

Satellite image of fires in Arkansas, March 5, 2020

Fires also detected in eastern OK and southeast MO

fires and smoke in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri
At 4:14 p.m. CST the GOES 16 satellite detected fires and smoke in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. NASA data, processed by Wildfire Today.

At 4:14 p.m. CST on March 5 the GOES 16 satellite detected fires and smoke in Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, and southeast Missouri. It is difficult to tell if they are wildfires, prescribed fires, or agricultural burning, but most of them appear to in forested areas.

The March 5 prediction for Red Flag Warnings designated areas of enhanced wildfire danger north and northwest of Arkansas.

wildfires Red Flag Warnings, March 5, 2020
Red Flag Warnings, March 5, 2020.