The beautiful view of the Admiralty Inlet Natural Area Preserve got a tad smoky last Friday, catching the attention of residents driving on Engle Road. Armed with their cameras, teary eyed and coughing, bystanders took photos of the scene from behind the trail’s fence as the smell of smoke permeated their clothes and hair.

They weren’t documenting the tragic aftermath of a baby shower gone wrong, but a prescribed fire operation conducted by the Central Whidbey Island Fire and Rescue in collaboration with the Whidbey Camano Land Trust, which owns and manages the preserve.

The fire — meticulously planned with fire experts, ecologists and local authorities — was only conducted on a 2.25-acre portion of the 80-acre preserve to avoid causing excessive harm to the prairie’s tiny inhabitants. Other portions will be burned separately.

Prescribed burns present the benefit of hands-on wildfire response training. According to Central Whidbey Island Fire and Rescue Wildland Training Officer Kolton Kellison, there were 12 firefighters on the scene, two of whom were from North Whidbey Fire and Rescue.

Though it might sound paradoxical to some, controlled burns are also beneficial to the environment as they restore ecosystems and foster the growth of native species, many of which depend on fire to release their seeds and outcompete invasive species. Indigenous people figured it out thousands of years ago.

According to the prescribed fire plan, the goal was to kill at least 90% of Nootka rose and snowberry plants and seedlings and reduce thatch, litter, moss and lichen which hinder germination.

Land Trust Stewardship Specialist Kyle Ostermick-Durkee was one of the people on the scene.

“It’s a really cool win-win to see where public safety and training our firefighters lines up with these ecological objectives,” he said.

Ostermick-Durkee has more than eight years of experience in ecological restoration. Following the burn, he will reseed the prairie with red fescue, foothills sedge, camas, wild strawberry, showy fleabane and other native wildflowers. Come spring, one won’t be able to notice a fire had ever occurred.

The seeds are collected from the Land Trust’s properties and native plant nursery, though many are already buried underground, waiting for their turn to germinate.

“A lot of seed in the ground was waiting for that fire,” Ostermick-Durkee said. “They want to come into contact with ash from the fire before they germinate. If they don’t get that, they won’t germinate and will hang out in the soil indefinitely.”

After the burn, the Land Trust might use a herbicide to kill resprouting invasive species and already expects to conduct another burn in the next two to four years. This isn’t in fact the first time the unit gets a makeover; according to the prescribed fire plan, it had already been burned in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2020.

Ostermick-Durkee explained that Whidbey prairies are some of the state’s rarest ecosystems. Today, only 1% of the original 8,000 acres of prairies exist on the island, he said.

Though this isn’t the first time the Central Whidbey Island Fire and Rescue contributed to these restoration efforts, this was the first year the fire department has led the operation.

A firefighter walks across the smoky prairie. (Photo by Luisa Loi/Whidbey News-Times)

A firefighter drags a water hose to extinguish the flames. (Photo by Luisa Loi/Whidbey News-Times)

A firefighter walks across the thick smoke holding a shovel. (Photo by Luisa Loi/Whidbey News-Times)

The smoke from the fires covered the clear sky, as seen from Engle Road. (Photo by Luisa Loi/Whidbey News-Times)

A section of the Admiralty Inlet Natural Area Preserve on fire, shot from a drone. (Photo by Rachel Stern)

Photo by Rachel Stern