The City of Whitewater has announced it will be conducting controlled burns of Meadowsweet Park, 601 N. Tratt St. and the Whitewater Effigy Mounds Preserve (formerly Indian Mounds Park), 288 S. Indian Mound Pkwy in the next week.
The burns will be conducted between the dates of April 9-18 when the wind is from an easterly direction at 5-15 MPH and humidity is between 30-60 percent. An announcement will be posted the morning of the day of the burn on the Whitewater Parks and Recreation website: www.wwparks.org.
Meadowsweet Park and the Whitewater Effigy Mounds Preserve are established prairies with a maintenance plan that requires periodic controlled/prescribe burns. Controlled or prescribed burning is used to limit exotic and unwanted brush invasions that crowd out native vegetation. Controlled burns can also:
• Stimulate prairie grass growth and improves habitat for upland game and waterfowl.;
• Create pockets of open water for waterfowl amidst cattails proliferating in low areas;
• Improve cover type for upland nesting birds, such as pheasants, and spur native vegetative growth for songbirds, and;
• Help preserve grasslands and native flora, plant species that were sustained by natural fires prior to intensive European settlement.
For more information or to report a concern contact Parks and Recreation Director Matt Amundson by phone at (262) 473-0122 or via email at mamundson@whitewater-wi.gov.
