The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and the Missouri Prescribed Fire Council (MPFC) encourage landowners, land managers, and others who conduct prescribed burns on private land to “Log Your Burn” through the MPFC website.

Prescribed fire, or controlled burning, is an affordable and effective management tool to accomplish land management goals including: reducing fuel loads to reduce the chance and intensity of wildfire; restoring native plant communities; enhancing wildlife habitat for wild turkeys, deer, and other game species; improving livestock forage production; regenerating trees; and controlling invasive species such as bush honeysuckle.

The Log Your Burn questions ask the date, county, acres, and habitat type burned, along with identifying if a prescribed burn association or landowner cooperative was used to provide assistance. The last questions ask if any fire occurred outside the burn unit, and if so, to what extent. To avoid multiple submissions for one burn unit, the landowner or the contractor leading the burn should be the one completing the entry.

“This information is useful in charting the use of prescribed fire across the state and is key in demonstrating the safe use of this critical land management tool with insurance providers, legislators, and Missourians,” said Wes Buchheit, Missouri Prescribed Fire Coordinating Wildlife Biologist with Pheasants Forever, Inc. and Quail Forever.

You can log your prescribed burn at moprescribedfire.org. This is a voluntary and anonymous entry for prescribed burns completed on private land in Missouri.