Kansas 4-County Wildfire: Rangeland Recovery Lessons for Great Plains Ranchers After the Fire

When wildfire sweeps across a ranch, the immediate losses can be hard to miss: livestock, fences, buildings and miles of blackened grassland.

But what happens to the rangeland after the fire is out?

Following the December 2021 4-County Fire in north-central Kansas, researchers and rangeland specialists had a unique opportunity to study that question. The fire burned more than 120,000 acres of grassland under extreme conditions, including winds exceeding 90 miles per hour.

Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition's new Walk & Talk video series takes viewers into the burned area with Keith Harmoney, K-State range scientist at the Western Kansas Research and Extension Center in Hays, and Dusty Tacha, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service statewide prescribed burn specialist.

Together, they look at what happened to the grass, soil cover and plant community, and what those observations can teach ranchers about managing rangeland after wildfire.

A Natural Experiment on Kansas Rangeland

The 4-County Fire created an unusual opportunity for research.

At one study location, researchers could compare three areas: rangeland that remained unburned, an area affected by a slower-moving backfire, and an area crossed by the high-wind head fire.

The difference immediately after the fire was striking. In the head-fire area, extreme winds carried away ash and loose surface soil, leaving the ground particularly bare. The backfire area retained considerably more ash and loose soil.

Researchers followed the sites to measure forage production, litter cover and changes in plant composition during recovery.
 

Fire, Drought and Forage Production

The first growing season brought another challenge: drought.

In 2022, drought alone reduced dry-matter production at the study site by about 40% compared with average production. On the burned areas, researchers measured an additional 25% reduction compared with the unburned area.

Combined, the burned sites produced about 45% of typical production that year.

That distinction matters. Not every reduction in forage following a wildfire is necessarily caused by fire alone. Weather and growing conditions remain major pieces of the recovery equation.

The encouraging finding came during the following growing season. Production in the unburned and backfire areas was similar, indicating that at this particular study site, the measured reduction in production associated with the fire lasted essentially one growing season.
 

The Grass Came Back, but It Didn't Come Back Exactly the Same

Recovery wasn't simply about how many pounds of grass grew.

Researchers also documented a significant change in plant composition, particularly in the head-fire area.

Little bluestem declined substantially while big bluestem increased. In an area where researchers had data from before the wildfire, composition shifted from approximately 55% little bluestem and 25% big bluestem before the fire to approximately 5% little bluestem and 55% big bluestem afterward.

Both are desirable native grasses, but their growth forms differ. Little bluestem is a bunchgrass that can accumulate old plant material around its crown. Under an intense wildfire, that material can hold heat around the plant's growing points. Big bluestem spreads through underground rhizomes and was able to expand into areas opened by the loss of little bluestem.

The result was an important lesson from the study: forage production may recover relatively quickly while changes in plant composition can last longer.

Don't Forget What's Covering the Soil

Litter told another part of the recovery story.

During the year following the fire, approximately 50% of the soil surface in the unburned area was covered by litter. The burned areas had less than 10% litter cover even after a full growing season.

That residue matters. Litter helps protect the soil surface from raindrop impact and slows water moving across the ground.

Recovery took time. By the end of the third growing season, litter cover in the unburned, backfire and head-fire areas had reached approximately 45 to 50%.

What Does This Mean for Grazing?

One of the biggest questions following wildfire is whether burned native rangeland can be grazed.

As part of the study, researchers defoliated portions of the plots during the first growing season following the fire, even as the region experienced drought, and evaluated production the following year. They found no statistically significant production difference associated with that defoliation treatment.

That doesn't mean grazing management no longer matters after wildfire.

Instead, the discussion points toward matching grazing pressure with the forage actually available. Conservative grazing may be possible, but producers need to account for reductions in forage caused by fire, drought or both.

The condition of the rangeland going into a stressful event matters, too. Vigorous perennial grasses have substantial resources below ground, and maintaining healthy plants before drought or wildfire can help position the rangeland for recovery afterward.

Do You Need to Reseed?

A black landscape after wildfire can make reseeding seem like an obvious next step.

On healthy native rangeland, however, it may not be necessary.

Many perennial native grasses recover from surviving crowns, buds and underground stems rather than starting over from seed. At the 4-County Fire study sites, the existing perennial plant community demonstrated that ability to recover.

There is another reason to be cautious about introducing seed or hay from outside sources: unwanted plants can come with them. Following a wildfire, producers should keep track of locations where outside hay is fed and monitor those areas for species they don't want spreading into native rangeland.

Wildfire Can Also Create a Management Opportunity

Eastern redcedar and other woody plants are an increasing concern on Kansas rangelands. An intense wildfire may kill trees that otherwise would require considerable time and expense to remove.

But the opportunity doesn't last forever.

Surviving cedars can continue producing seed, and dead trees provide perches for birds that can disperse additional seed. Following wildfire, landowners may have a window of several years to remove surviving trees, knock down dead trees and follow up with appropriate management before woody plants reclaim those areas.

The lesson is not that wildfire is without cost. Wildfires can have devastating consequences for people, livestock and infrastructure.

Rather, once the immediate emergency has passed, producers can look carefully at what changed and determine whether the fire created opportunities for improving the long-term condition of the rangeland.

Fire Is Part of the Great Plains

Perhaps the biggest lesson from the series is also the simplest: Great Plains grasslands developed with fire.

Fire and grazing, along with climate and weather, have shaped these grasslands for thousands of years.

That doesn't make wildfire and prescribed fire the same thing. Wildfires occur under conditions managers do not choose. Prescribed fires are planned around specific objectives and conditions.

Understanding that distinction, and understanding how native rangelands respond to fire, can help producers make better decisions before and after the next wildfire.

The Kansas 4-County Wildfire: Rangeland Recovery Lessons for Great Plains Ranchers After the Fire video series follows Harmoney and Tacha into the field to examine the evidence firsthand. From forage production and plant composition to grazing decisions, woody encroachment and prescribed fire, the series turns lessons from one of Kansas' major wildfires into practical information for grazing managers across the Great Plains.

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