In addition, the Plains Indians started fires to move game into certain areas. To early settlers, fire was a feared enemy that destroyed everything in its path. As more settlers came, roads, fences, plowed fields, and overgrazing became barriers to wildfires, reducing their occurrence so that large wildfires became rare. In Kansas, the same pattern occurred, except in the area known as the Flint Hills. Since settlement of the area, fire has been used as a management tool to rejuvenate and maintain the grasslands.
Fire is essential to maintain the prairie ecosystem.
Without it, the prairie would eventually become a forest. Use of fire as a management tool has steadily spread westward across the state. Its use in western Kansas is limited primarily to controlling brush and weeds and improving grazing distribution. It can recycle nutrients tied up in old plant growth, stimulate tillering, control many woody plants and herbaceous weeds, improve poor grazing distribution, reduce wildfire hazards, improve wildlife habitat, maintain and improve native hay meadows, and increase livestock production in stocker operations. To gain these benefits, fire must be used under specific conditions and with proper timing.