[Mboxmaja]

I too understand your concern. No out of control fire is a good fire. Especially is property gets damaged. With the conditions you described, I am quite surprised they would proceed with the burn (although I think the 5 mph limit is too low...). Seems like the person in charge lacked common sense.

Your right to point out that insect species are important to prairie ecosystems, however, insect populations are quite resilient. The population will crash, however they do recover. Everything you've said is correct about island dynamics.

Has your friend done any long term studies on insect population pre and post burn? I would be interested in seeing that research.

The burns I conduct are for habitat improvement. To stress non-native plant species and favour native species. The goal is to increase quality and diversity. A well timed fire can have an incredible effect on the prairie. A poorly timed fire will have less of an effect, but always a positive effect.

Its hard to comment on that particular fire without knowing the plants and problems of the site, but I think you'll find long term, the fire did way more good then bad.

Heres a photo of me (in the blue) conducting a controlled burn a couple of years ago. I'll post more later.