Prescribed Fire at Lincoln's Boyhood Home

A firefighter from the Great Lakes Fire Management Zone ignites the perimeter of the Cemetery Hill Prescribed Fire.

NPS

In March of 2023, fire personnel from the Great Lakes Fire Management Zone located at Indiana Dunes National Park, conducted several pile burns and a broadcast burn in the Cemetery Hill Unit at Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. An engine from the Missouri Park Group, located at Ozark National Scenic Riverways assisted the Great Lakes Fire Management Zone staff in the completion of the prescribed fire.

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is in southern Indiana. It is a historically important site where Abraham Lincoln's family settled on their 160-acre farm in 1816. Lincoln was 7 years old when the family settled there. This farm and forest, in many ways, shaped him into the man that would eventually become the 16th President of the United States.

The Cemetery Hill Prescribed Fire unit is unique because it holds the cemetery where Nancy Hanks Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's mother) is buried. The burn unit borders two popular trail systems, a working historical farm with replica buildings, farm animals, many split rail fences, and an agricultural field.

The forest is an oak-hickory forest that has been heavily invaded by sugar maple. To return the forest to pre-settlement times, fire is used to kill sugar maple seedlings and saplings which in turn increases the understory light levels to help promote the growth of the desired oak, hickory, and other native companion understory vegetation.

In addition to prescribed fire, hundreds of saplings were planted in 2018 and 2019 as part of restoration efforts. In 2022, the remaining unplanted area of the unit was thinned in preparation to plant. The thinned area was planted in March of 2023, one-week after the prescribed fire. A series of pile burns were also conducted in conjunction with the thinning projects and broadcast burn to reduce the accumulation of hazardous fuels to lessen the threat of wildfires to nearby residents, to eliminate slash piles created by park maintenance, and to reduce fuel loading in the Cemetery Hill Unit so the desired fire intensity could be achieved. The combined efforts of thinning projects, pile burning, broadcast burning, and planting at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial aid in the growth of desired species to preserve and protect the historical accuracy of the landscape.