Should We Use Fire to Manage Land?

Humans have always used prescribed fire to manage land in the Great Plains. Indigenous groups used prescribed fire to shape the Great Plains landscapes and create environments in which they could thrive. Prescribed fires used to manage land are very different from wildfires. The risk of fatality to wildfire fighters is 3,500% higher compared to prescribed fire users. Today’s grasslands owe their existence to human-ignited fires and is the only method proven to effectively control cedar at the scale of the Great Plains biome.