Increased Prescribed Fire Capacity- WPAs

Due to a host of reasons, the natural resources and wildlife management community has not been able to apply fire to the Minnesota landscape at a rate that mimics historic fire return intervals. This has created several problems, most noticeably the encroachment of trees and brush into prairies and grasslands. This grant will dramatically increase the capacity of the USFWS to conduct prescribed fires on public hunting lands in western Minnesota. Additionally, we will overseed low diversity sites with local ecotype seed after the burn. Together, this will increase the quality of prairie grassland habitat in Minnesota, increasing populations of game and non-game species, and provide additional outdoor recreational opportunities for Minnesotans.