Burn Authored by Jay Searles . Jay has moved on, but you can still contact at his eMail address above. The National Park Service conducted a large burn of 4,600 acres in the Badlands National Park west of Cedar Pass, SD on September 9, 1999. The purpose of the burn was to mimic a natural lightning started fire that normally would cover these acres every 15 years or so.
Natural fires play an intricate part of keeping the biological system in balance.
Below is a map of the burned area. These include temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, and other factors such as thunderstorms and frontal passages. Weather is uniquely related to fire and its behavior. In performing a prescribed burn, all these conditions must be just right. If it were too windy or too hot and dry, it could spread across or the fire line and become a wild fire.