Oakland Township Parks and Recreation regularly conducts prescribed burns for habitat management, such as encouraging native plant species and discouraging invasive plants. We use prescribed burns to help restore ecological function to natural communities. Prescribed burns follow a careful plan, and are done with permission from the local fire department. We consult the weather forecast in the morning before making the decision to burn on a specific day. Because of these limitations, we cannot schedule burns in advance. For more information about planning and implementing prescribed burns, please visit our Prescribed Fire page.

If you live adjacent to one of our parks and wish to be contacted the day of a burn at that park, please contact Ben VanderWeide, the Natural Areas Stewardship Manager.

2023 Prescribed Burns

We hope to complete the following burns in spring, summer, or fall of 2023. Timing depends on the weather and plant growth.

• Bear Creek Nature Park – fields throughout the park.
• Draper Twin Lake Park – prairie and fields on the east side of the park.
• Gallagher Creek Park – uplands and wetland throughout the park.
• Lost Lake Nature Park – parking lot bioswale and native plantings on the south side of Lost Lake.
• Paint Creek Trail
  • Prairie remnants between Dutton and Silverbell Roads.
  • Prairie remnant at the Gallagher Road parking lot.
  • Fen wetland at the Paint Creek Heritage Area – Fen, southeast of Adams Road.
• Stony Creek Ravine Nature Park – open fields and wet meadow in the northeast corner of the park.

We also regularly burn brush piles of invasive shrubs in sites that are difficult access with a chipper.

Learn More and Get Involved

• If you live adjacent to one of our parks and would like to be contacted the day of the burn at that park, please contact Ben VanderWeide, the Natural Areas Stewardship Manager.
• If you’d like to volunteer on our prescribed burn crew, contact Ben VanderWeide to learn more – bvanderweide@oaklandtownship.org. We hold our crew training each year in February.

Prescribed Fire Volunteer Crew Training

When: Annually in February

Where: Paint Creek Cider Mill, 4480 Orion Road, Rochester, MI 48306

Description: If you are interested in joining our volunteer prescribed fire crew, or would like to learn more about using prescribed fire as a land management tool, join us for this training workshop. We will cover reasons for using prescribed fire, preparations for conducting a fire, necessary tools, roles of each burn crew member, and ignition patterns. Snacks will be provided, but participants should bring their own lunch. Weather permitting we will do a small demonstration burn after lunch.

RSVP required to bvanderweide@oaklandtownship.org or 248-651-7810 ext. 401

Postings about Prescribed Burns

• Prescribed Burns for Healthy Habitat
• THIS WEEK AT BEAR CREEK: Off-and-On Spring, a Prescribed Burn, and Two Special Bird Sightings
• Fire on the Snow: A Quick Stewardship Update
• Fantastic, Forgotten Fields: Using Fire to Manage Open Habitat
• Photos of the Week: Restoring Nature’s Beauty with Fire? Yep!
• Prescribed fire boosts prairie restoration along the Paint Creek Trail
• A Fragile, Wet Prairie Full of Encouraging Discoveries