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. The Garden began a prescribed burn program in 2023 and successfully completed three. 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, his 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 […]
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