Prescribed Fire

March 19, 2026, Brawner Farm Rx Fire Planned

We are planning to perform a prescribed fire in the Brawner Farm area of the park on Thursday, March 19, 2026. The activity is weather-dependent and will only take place if conditions are ideal for a prescribed fire.

For your safety, and our firefighters' safety, the area is closed to the public during fire operations. The area will reopen when it is safe for the public to re-enter.

 

A firefighter uses a drip torch to set a prescribed fire at Brawner Farm, 2018.

NPS / Nathan King

What is prescribed fire?

Prescribed fire is a fire set purposely to burn a specific area of land for resource management reasons.

First, firefighters make sure the weather is ideal for prescribed fire. Too hot or too dry, and the fire could get out of control. Too wet and the fire may not ignite. Firefighters look for a perfect balance of wind, temperature, and humidity before starting a prescribed fire.

When setting a prescribed fire, firefighters use natural or manmade boundaries such as roads, a mowed path, or fire breaks to keep the fire contained. Then, using a drip torch, firefighters set fire to the vegetation starting from the downwind border of the burn area, allowing the fire to back slowly into the target area.

Firefighters use a variety of hand tools and vehicle-mounted tools to help guide and contain the fire.

 

A firefighter monitors a prescribed fire at the Brawner Farm, 2018.

NPS / Nathan King

Benefits and goals of prescribed fire

We use prescribed fire to work toward a number of goals.

• Restore the landscape to how it looked during the Civil War
• Improve diversity of native plants and animals
• Suppress non-native species that threaten ecosystem health
• Reduce fuels and prevent an uncontrolled wildfire

During the Civil War, most of the land on the battlefield was farm fields. But after the war, some of those plots of land went disused and, over time, forests overtook the fields. As the park has worked to restore these viewsheds, fire has been an important tool to forestall the growth of woody vegetation where a grassland is preferred. Fire helps control woody growth especially in places where it is impossible to mow conventionally, such as rocky areas.

 

An American woodcock (Scolopax minor) hides in a grassland at Manassas National Battlefield Park, 2018. Woodcocks use their long, probing bills to find invertebrates deep in the soil and mud.

NPS / Nathan King

Many native species depend on grasslands for part or all of their life cycle, whether it is plants that can only survive where there are abundant nutrients and sunlight, or animals that depend on those plants for food or shelter. Today, Eastern grasslands are rare, and those in Manassas National Battlefield Park are particularly special for their abundant plant and animal life.

Non-native species, such as certain grasses, shrubs, and bushes, threaten ecosystem health. Prescribed fire used at the right time of year helps to attack these non-native species when they are vulnerable, and while native species remain dormant.

By deliberately setting a fire in a manner which it is monitored and maintained, firefighters can also prevent a wildfire - one that is not controlled - from affecting the area. By reducing fuels on the ground such as dry vegetation and woody plants, firefighters deny a future fire of the fuel it needs to burn, while still allowing nature to gain the benefits of having had a fire on the land.