Prescribed Burn and Grazing Workshop

Research Update and Practitioner Experiences
This workshop is a great opportunity to learn about the role of prescribed burning to enhance ecosystem services and livestock performance. While fire is often viewed as bad, planned prescribed burns can achieve a positive outcome.
Speakers will provide the latest science on burning and grazing in the Northern Plains, including the NDSU Central Grasslands Research Extension Center, on the role of burning with grazing on wildlife habitat, plant community composition and forage quality and cattle performance.
Speakers from across the Northern Great Plains
- Agency representatives
- Livestock producers
- Researchers
- Conservationists
Topics
- General introductions to the logistics of implementing prescribed fire
- The role of the North Dakota Prescribed Fire Cooperative
- How fire promotes floral expression
- Impacts of patch burn grazing on grassland birds
- How fire can improve livestock performance and forage nutritional value
- Optimizing fire return interval and time of year for prescribed burning
- How burning can improve a plant community
- Rancher perspectives: implementing prescribed burns in a livestock operation
- Building and sustaining a ‘Burning Culture’ in the Dakotas
A buffet lunch will be served at noon.
Attendees will be able to ask questions and discuss their personal key issues involved with implementing prescribed burns on rangelands in North Dakota.
Agenda
Time | Subject | Speaker |
---|---|---|
9:30 | Welcome and opening remarks | Kevin Sedivec - Extension Rangeland Management Specialist, NDSU Extension and Interim Director, Central Grasslands REC |
9:40 | Prescribed Fire Objectives | Eric Hoff - Land Steward, TNC |
10:00 | Experience Using Prescribed Burning and Grazing on TNC Land in ND | Eric Rosenquist - Conservation Program Coordinator, NDNRT |
10:20 | Fire for Flowers: How Restoring Disturbance is Key to Pollinator Conservation | Torre Hovick -Associate Professor of Range Science, NDSU |
10:40 | Break | |
11:00 | Improving Grassland Bird Habitat with Prescribed Fire | Justin Clarke - PhD Candidate, NDSU School of Natural Resource Sciences |
11:20 | Pheasants Forever Prescribed Fire Program | Kelli Kuska - Prescribed Fire Coordinator, Pheasants Forever |
11:40 | Discussion | |
12:00 | Lunch | |
1:00 | Keynote – Producer Perspectives: Fire, Grazing, and Conservation on the Sheyenne Delta | George King - Producer, Leonard, ND |
1:40 | Plant Community Responses to Fire and Grazing | Esben Kjaer - PhD Candidate, NDSU School of Natural Resource Sciences |
2:00 | Forage Quality and Livestock Performance Using Patch Burn Grazing | Kevin Sedivec |
2:20 | Break | |
2:40 | Consider Fire as Nature’s Primary Tool to Suppress Invading Species in Rangelands | Jim Kopriva - Producer, Raymond South Dakota |
3:00 | Do plants respond to multi-year disturbance rhythms, and are we missing the beat? | Lance Vermeire - Rangeland Ecologist, USDA-ARS Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory |
3:20 | Building and Sustaining a ‘Fire Culture’ in the Dakotas | Pete Bauman - Natural Resources and Wildlife Field Specialist, SDSU |
3:40 | Discussion | |
4:00 | Wrap-up | Kevin Sedivec |
Who Should Attend
The event is open to the public. Livestock producers and rangeland managers are encouraged to attend.
Registration and Cost
The event is free. Preregistration for the meeting is highly encouraged in order to provide sufficient meals and seating.
Register
Contact Information
Requests for accommodations related to disability should be made to the event contact person at least two weeks in advance of the event.