Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Iowa Learning Farms' December Webinar: Patch-Burn Grazing

Date: Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Start: 12:00 pm

Location: Online webinar

Contact: John Lundvall, ILF field coordinator, 515-294-5429

The Iowa Learning Farms’ November webinar will feature Ryan Harr, ISU wildlife biologist, who will discuss patch-burn grazing as part of the multi-state Restoration Ecology in Working Landscapes project in southern Iowa and northern Missouri. He will present background information as well as results to date of this project.

The webinar is part of a series, hosted by ILF, held on the third Wednesday of each month. This month's webinar, however, is on the second Wednesday. The webinars are held over the noon hour through Adobe Connect. All that is needed to participate is a computer with Internet access.

Related information

View this archived presentation

North American prairie ecosystems evolved in the context of both fire and grazing. In recent efforts to restore the interactive effects of these processes to grasslands in the central U.S., fire is applied to discrete portions of the landscape. Grazers focus their activities on these recently burned patches while avoiding unburned areas. This approach is termed “patch-burn grazing.” The scale of forage selection is altered from individual plant species to entire patches and the fire-grazing interaction has been shown to increase grassland biodiversity and limit the spread of exotic, invasive forage species. 

View a Leopold Center video about this project

Ryan Harr is a wildlife biologist who coordinates and oversees much of the field research operations for the Restoration Ecology in Working Landscapes project. The goal is to examine the effects of patch-burn grazing and compare this approach to traditional grazing and the use of fire without grazing. The project team works with local landowners to examine their perspectives on the use of fire and grazing as management tools.

See other ILF webinars  www.extension.iastate.edu/ilf

About Iowa Learning Farms: ILF is a partnership between the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa State University Extension, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the US EPA (section 319); in cooperation with Conservation Districts of Iowa and the Iowa Farm Bureau.