In the fall of 2024, Connecticut saw a record 605 wildfires, which burned more than 500 acres and prompted a statewide emergency declaration, a temporary burn ban, and multi‑agency firefighting support. Over the past several years, the state has faced a steady rise in brush fires, fueled by declining forest health and a warming climate that has brought more frequent drought conditions and higher temperatures.
As Connecticut prepares for a future where these types of fires become the norm, UConn alum Zachary Placzek ’25 (CAHNR) is helping researchers in the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR) and members of the UConn Fire Department (UCFD) practice implementing prescribed burning to manage forest safety and restore habitat. The team is also conducting cutting-edge research to see how this method affects soil health, exploring microbial treatments to improve and influence ecosystem regrowth.
Prescribed burning, also known as controlled burning, reduces fuels by igniting burnable vegetation under specific conditions to lower the risk of future wildfires. While this practice is common in the western U.S., Connecticut’s climate, ecosystems, and fire regime differ significantly thereby reducing the familiarity of this successful land management tool.
Placzek has experience fighting fires, working as a wildland firefighter with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CT DEEP). In July 2024, he responded to wildfires in Oregon and Washington to assist in fighting wildfires as part of the Connecticut Interstate Fire Crew, an experience that deepened his interest in how fire affects forests from the ground up.
To learn more about what happens in the ground with nutrient cycling and organic decomposition after a fire at a microscopic level, Placzek is working with Mia Maltz, assistant professor of microbial ecology and soil health in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture. Their research is focused on two types of New England landscapes. One in a wooded area of the UConn Forest and the other on an agricultural plot at the department’s Plant Science Research and Education Farm. They were the first prescribed burns ever recorded at UConn Storrs and overseen by the UCFD.
“When you do a prescribed fire, you have the power to test what was going on in the [microbial] community before the fire because you know the when the burn is going to happen,” says Placzek. “Fire drastically reduces the diversity of fungi initially. They take a long time to be restored, so one of the things we wanted to look at was inoculating with certain fungi post‑fire to understand the degree to which these microbes can promote plant performance.”
In the UConn Forest, dense woody debris left behind by pests like the emerald ash borer created heavy fuel loads. The Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, which manages the 2,100-acre forest, worked with Farm Services in the Department of Animal Science, to collect material for a jackpot burn, a method that stacks bulky concentrations of dead branches and logs into piles.
In addition to reducing hazardous fuels, this approach prepared the area for future restoration efforts, including reintroducing chestnut trees that have long since disappeared due to a devastating blight that significantly reduced the species a hundred years ago.
“We inoculated the UConn Forest site with soil that we collected from a disease‑resistant chestnut orchard to see if the microbes present there would assist long‑term growth,” Placzek says. “The diversity of fungi rose dramatically with the inoculation. When the trees are planted, we’ll know more about how effective it is.”
Placzek also observed meaningful chemical changes in the inoculated soil following the burn, including an increase in its cation exchange capacity (CEC), an important measure of soil indicating its ability to store and release important nutrients for root and plant development.
“We saw the CEC was much higher in the inoculated burn sites with the soil retaining valuable nutrients including potassium, magnesium, and calcium. There was also a buildup of aluminum in the soil, which suggests that certain microbes weren’t present to cycle it, perhaps something the fire or additional inoculations could reintroduce.”
At the research farm site, lighter, shrubbier vegetation and invasive species from retired research plots were burned. The result was a cooler and patchier burn creating ideal conditions for Placzek to study how microbial communities respond when fire moves across the landscape in uneven patterns. This spring, he is applying new inoculations to examine how soils with long agricultural histories respond to microbial restoration.
As with the UConn Forest burn, the controlled fire at the research farm provided immediate benefits with a convenient way to destroy invasive species and valuable opportunities for firefighters to practice and train using prescribed burn methods.
“It was an environmentally responsible way to properly dispose of invasive plants, as there was a lot of oriental bittersweet in the material,” says Travis Clark, research farm manager, “and one of the best ways to kill the seed is to burn it.”
“These burns help build the skill set our firefighters have with utilizing concepts and principles which, as structural firefighters, they don’t always get a chance to practice or implement, all the while reducing future fire risk,” says UCFD Chief Christopher Renshaw ’01 (CAHNR), ’07 MS. “I foresee an opportunity where we invite other fire departments if we continue to do this on a regular basis, to share this training, education, and research with a broader audience.”
Placzek’s work continues what is a growing partnership between CAHNR and the UCFD to tackle local brush fire risk. UConn Extension and the UCFD recently teamed up on a tool to visualize and educate planners, firefighters, and residents in Connecticut to aid in preparing for future wildfires.
“Our hope is to generate new knowledge that may guide future forest restoration, improve wildfire preparedness, and support healthier, more resilient ecosystems throughout New England,” says Placzek.
This work relates to CAHNR’s Strategic Vision area focused on Fostering Sustainable Landscapes at the Urban-Rural Interface.
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