Burning your prairie provides many benefits to the prairie ecosystem! Fire helps cycle nutrients and reduces the invasion of less desirable fire-sensitive species such as the non-native buckthorn. Fire is beneficial as it acts as nature’s gardener by trimming back trees and overmature shrubs that shade out sun-dependent plants, such as grasses and prairie flowers. After a burn, the blackened soil quickly absorbs sunlight. The warmed earth encourages seed germination. Charred plant remains turn into a rich fertilizer, encouraging new grass growth to sprout from the network of root systems deep below ground.