The Garden began a prescribed burn program in 2023. Fire is a critical land management tool in Florida that encourages the growth of new plants, promotes seed distribution, and, critically, reduces accumulated plant matter that could fuel a wildfire. Safety precautions include the creation of firebreaks to contain the blaze to its designated area and the removal of vines and low-growing branches to keep the fire from climbing into the canopy. A certified burn manager, their team, and other regional conservation partners join our fire-certified staff in conducting this operation.
Read more about prescribed burns at the Garden
Persuading the Flames
Practitioners reveal the science–and art–of redirecting nature’s sometimes deadly force for good A flamethrower inches along the Garden’s southern border, spewing an orange flame into a stand of pine trees. […]
Habitat on Fire
Recently, we burned a portion of our Florida scrub habitat, and what a sight to behold! Scrub is an arid landscape, and when it ignites—even under our carefully controlled conditions—plants […]
Native Pawpaw Flourishes After Fire
Following the Garden’s prescribed fires of 2023, netted pawpaw (Asimina reticulata), a native Florida plant that we’re tracking and tending as part of a North American agricultural initiative, is suddenly […]
Blazes Spark New Life in Preserve
Garden conservationists and FGCU students track surge in key species following prescribed burn Fire used to be a natural phenomenon in our landscape—during the first storms of summer, lightning strikes […]
Documenting a Prescribed Burn
Being Naples Botanical Garden’s staff photographer and videographer is a dream job. I get to do a lot of different stuff, including chronicling Garden staff’s wide-ranging projects, taking portraits of […]
