Everglades National Park Uses Out of the Box Approach on Prescribed Fire for Restoration

Helicopter 626 ignites a portion of Hole-In-The-Donut prescribed fire.

©Ian Wilson. Used with permission.

In January 2020, firefighters completed a prescribed fire on the HID-Buffer (Hole-In-The-Donut) Prescribed Fire unit in Everglades National Park. The 9,739-acre unit was a small piece of a much larger landscape level approach that Everglades Fire Management is taking with regards to South Florida Fuels Management.

“Burning this unit was one of my highlights this year because it is an area that had not seen fire in over 40 years and it took an out-of-the-box approach to accomplish it with prescribed fire,” stated prescribed fire specialist, Michael Gue.

Air and ground ignition on Hole-In-The-Donut prescribed fire.

©Ian Wilson. Used with permission.

HID is former agricultural land that became overgrown with invasive Brazilian pepper plant and is now part of a wetland restoration project. Burning at a high intensity will inhibit the growth of invasive species like the Brazilian pepper plant and encourage the growth of sawgrass and muhly grass, aiding in the restoration of the wetlands.

For the fourth year-in-a-row, Everglades National Park has treated approximately 50% of all acres treated with prescribed fire within the NPS and 20% within the DOI. The landscape level strategy is allowing Everglades Fire Management to create efficiencies throughout the program while reintroducing fire into ecosystems that have always needed it.