Prescribed Fire at Lincoln’s Boyhood Home: Restoring an Oak-Hickory Forest

In March 2023, fire crews from the Great Lakes Fire Management Zone, based at Indiana Dunes National Park, carried out several pile burns and a broadcast burn in the Cemetery Hill Unit of Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial. An engine crew from the Missouri Park Group at Ozark National Scenic Riverways helped.

A Great Lakes Fire Management Zone firefighter ignites the edge of the Cemetery Hill prescribed fire. Credit: National Park Service.

Why this place matters

The memorial, in southern Indiana, preserves the 160-acre farm where Abraham Lincoln's family settled in 1816, when he was 7. This farm and forest did much to shape the man who became the 16th president.

The Cemetery Hill unit is a sensitive place to burn. It holds the grave of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's mother, and borders two popular trail systems, a working historical farm with replica buildings, farm animals, many split-rail fences, and an agricultural field.

Why fire

The forest here is oak-hickory, heavily invaded by sugar maple. Fire kills maple seedlings and saplings, which lets more light reach the forest floor and helps oak, hickory and their native companion plants grow — moving the forest back toward its pre-settlement condition.

A restoration in steps

The pile burns had three jobs: reduce the buildup of hazardous fuels that could feed a wildfire near homes, get rid of slash piles left by park maintenance, and cut the fuel load in the unit so the broadcast burn could reach the intensity wanted.

Together, thinning, pile burning, broadcast burning and planting help the right species grow — keeping the landscape true to what it was when Lincoln lived there.

Sources

Based on "Prescribed Fire at Lincoln's Boyhood Home," Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain.