Fort McCoy personnel continue natural resources management through prescribed burns

Credit: Claudia Neve | Date Taken: 02/29/2024
Members of the Fort McCoy prescribed burn team oversee a prescribed burn Feb. 29, 2024, on South Post at Fort McCoy, Wis., in this b-roll footage. The post prescribed burn team includes personnel with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works (DPW) Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch; Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security; the Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands, and some other garrison personnel. Prescribed burns also improve wildlife habitat, control invasive plant species, restore and maintain native plant communities, and reduce wildfire potential. Prescribed burns benefit the environment many ways and are one of the tools that can be used on a large scale to improve wild habitat. Natural resources management officials say prescribed burns help set back invasive species, and they burn up their seed banks. Burns also give native species an opportunity to compete against some of the non-native species, as many native species depend on fire to help stimulate them and set back non-native species. (U.S. Army Video by Claudia Neve, Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office)