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Prescribed burn

A prescribed burn is a planned fire on grass. Ranchers in the Flint Hills and across Kansas use it to set back cedar and brush and to manage the prairie. Wind, humidity, and the neighbor's place all matter. This is ordinary ranch work. It is also easy to get wrong.

This page is about hiring a crew. It is not a guide to lighting a pasture fire yourself. The people listed here contract to run burns. Some also clear brush. Names are alphabetical.

Questions worth asking

• How many burns have you run on grass like mine?
• Who notifies the county and the fire department?
• How big is the crew, and what do you bring for water and for a fire that spots?
• What weather will you burn in, and who calls it off?
• What does your insurance cover?
• How do you keep the fire inside the pasture?
• Who stays for mop-up?

Many Kansas counties limit which days you can burn, and the rules change by county. A date is not firm until the crew says the weather is right. Local Prescribed Burn Associations are landowners who burn together. That is another route. See the landowners guide.

Prescribed Burn Associations and county rules.