Southern Illinois Prescribed Burn Association expands capacity with support from NWTF

Across southern Illinois, flames are bringing new life to the landscape. With help from the Illinois NWTF State Chapter Super Fund, the Southern Illinois Prescribed Burn Association (SIPBA) is increasing its capacity to use one of the most powerful and cost-effective tools in habitat management: fire.

Thanks to partial funding provided by the NWTF Illinois State Chapter, SIPBA has purchased essential prescribed fire equipment that will help expand its ability to safely conduct more burns across the region. This new gear will allow SIPBA to support multiple prescribed burns per day and loan equipment to trained members for use on their own lands, multiplying the number of acres improved for wild turkeys and other wildlife.

“Southern Illinois is the most biologically diverse region in the state but also has the dubious honor of possibly becoming one of the first areas in the country to completely shift from the productive oak-hickory system it has historically always been to the much less productive system it is becoming through a process called mesophication, resulting from the lack of active forest management,” said John Burk, NWTF district biologist for Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. “Southern Illinois contains a lot of public land that we are also working on, including the 250,000-acre Shawnee National Forest, but Illinois is over 90 percent privately owned, so to make any real progress on challenges like this, we need to be working on private land. Supporting SIPBA’s and the spin-off prescribed burn association, The Great Rivers PBA, efforts are a great way for us to make a difference.”

Prescribed fire is one of the most critical management practices used to maintain and restore ecosystems such as native prairie and oak-hickory woodlands—key habitats for wild turkeys, bobwhite quail, white-tailed deer and countless other species. Historically, these ecosystems evolved with frequent fire, and many of the plants and animals that live there depend on periodic burning to thrive.

While fire once occurred naturally across the Midwest through lightning strikes and Indigenous land stewardship, decades of suppression have disrupted that balance. Today, many landscapes are overstocked, packed with invasive species and burdened with excess woody vegetation that increases the risk of catastrophic wildfire.

Reintroducing fire in a controlled manner mimics those natural cycles. It helps control invasives, encourages the growth of native vegetation, opens up the forest floor and creates the kind of habitat that wild turkeys need for nesting, brood-rearing, foraging and escape cover.

The Southern Illinois Prescribed Burn Association was created to help private landowners navigate the often complex and intimidating process of using prescribed fire. With trained crews, expert guidance and now more robust equipment, SIPBA empowers landowners to improve their land for wildlife while increasing landscape-scale conservation outcomes.

The funding from the Illinois NWTF State Chapter comes with the potential to significantly expand impact. With this equipment purchase, SIPBA estimates it can increase the number of acres treated with fire by up to 500 acres per year.

The benefits of prescribed burning don’t stop at property lines. SIPBA’s partnerships with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service allow them to implement burns that stretch across public and private lands. This cross-boundary approach creates large, contiguous areas of suitable habitat—something that is vital for the complex life cycle needs of wild turkeys.

As SIPBA continues to scale up its work with this new capacity, NWTF members and partners can be proud of the role they’ve played in sparking positive change across the region. Whether it’s opening up woodlands or rejuvenating prairies, these prescribed fires are clearing the way for healthier wildlife habitat and a brighter future for wild turkeys in southern Illinois.