Editor’s Note: One of Mono Lake’s many restoration projects involves fire. Prescribed burns reopen densely thatched waterfowl habitat and return natural processes to the ecosystem. In this essay, written for the local Mammoth Times, State Park Ranger David Carle recounts this past winter’s burn.

The parcel to be burned was ignited in strips, flames dropped from canisters of fuel called "drip torches." Carefully burnt strips along the parcel edge became a "black-line," an expanding fuel break. Once a broad enough safe zone was charred, hotter fire moved more rapidly through the rest of the parcel.

On this day the ground was covered by ice throughout the marsh. It was interesting to watch flames over ice. Heat rises, so the fire did not usually melt the "floor" of frozen water, except in the hottest spots, where dense stands of tules and cattails flared up. Once warmer weather eventually thaws the area, a stubble of stems will be revealed, above roots sunk in the wet ground, unaffected by the fire. In the spring, marsh plants will respond to the fertilizing ash with vigorous sprouting, further encouraged by direct sunlight on the young sprouts, now that the blanket-cover of thatch is removed.

Burning wetlands is part of an on-going effort to test the effectiveness of fire as a tool in waterfowl habitat restoration at Mono Lake. Unburnt marshland becomes so thick with decades of thatch-buildup that it is nearly impenetrable to ducks and geese. The standing dead vegetation has almost no food value for wildlife. Burnt marshes, however, respond with a greater variety of vegetation types and are more accessible to animals.

A fire regime has been a part of the Mono Basin ecosystem for thousands of years. Fires were naturally started by lightning or set by Native Americans to improve hunting and plant-gathering conditions. Tules, cattails, and willows had many uses that were aided by new growth following frequent burning. Coring through 9,000 years of marsh deposits in northeastern California shows dozens of major ash layers, indicating periodic major fires, with enough charcoal spread throughout to suggest that humans set regular, lower intensity burns for thousands of years.

Decades of effective fire suppression have altered plant communities throughout California. The reintroduction of fire to ecosystems is a statewide policy for California State Parks, particularly within units managed for their natural values, as is the State Reserve at Mono Lake.

Two parcels were burned this January. The first was small, only five acres, but important to the research objectives, because the same area was burned three years ago. The response of re-burning will be compared to the freshly burned areas. More frequent burns may produce more open areas for waterfowl. This kind of frequency, 2 to 5 years, was the pattern generally followed by Native Americans in marshes. The second parcel burned was over 50 acres, large enough to begin truly evaluating the results of this effort.