DETROIT (WXYZ) — Three Detroit parks look to be destroyed as they were purposely set on fire Thursday afternoon. However, it's not quite what it seems.
Thursday the City of Detroit held its first ever city-led controlled burns at Palmer Park, Riverside Park, and Rouge Park.
"It’s funny to say that a burn may be exciting," said Gretchen Abrams, executive director of Detroit Audubon.
Abrams has been working on the meadow at Palmer Park that was part of the burn for five years and asked Detroit to hold the burn.
Controlled burns are a Native Zmerican practice that helps a natural area to thrive. The burns help to eliminate invasive plants that are deep-rooted and crowding the native plants.
Abrams said, "If you’ve ever weeded in your own yard to get out those ones that you don’t want, you know it’s a lot of elbow grease. It’s hard work. So it’s very exciting to see it get done in such a good, quick fashion."
When asked if keeping the burn controlled is difficult David Mindell said, "No. If we have the right equipment and the right knowledge it’s a pretty easy process."
Mindell is known as the "burn boss" at Plant Wise, the company contracted to do the burning.
He explained, "That burned material converts over to usable nutrients for those plants."
Typically controlled burns take place in more rural areas.
Bringing them to Detroit is the city's way of incorporating more natural maintenance strategies.
Controlled burns will now replace mowing in these park spaces, which will cut down on mowing emissions and create healthier parks that wildlife needs and people will enjoy.
"You know we’ve lost 3 billion birds in 50 years in North America alone, and the primary reason is habitat loss, so we really wanna maintain a healthy habitat," said Abrams.
Mindell shared, "If we don’t have diverse plants, we lose the diverse animals."
