In nature, fire's destructive power often has restorative benefits.

That has been made clear recently at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in Seneca County. On Easter Sunday, April 4, the refuge suffered a 700-acre fire through a contiguous area of cattail marsh, says refuge Deputy Manager Bill Stewart. At one point the flames stretched over a mile of the marsh's surface. Investigators haven't determined fire's cause, although it is thought to be manmade

But there's been a pretty significant upside to the fire, Stewart says. The ash from the burn "has created this incredible fertilizer," he says. And since the flames burned away last year's growth, the sun is better able to penetrate the soil.

"We've got great green growth already," Stewart says.

Refuge staff and firefighters were lucky that the peat soil in the marsh didn't catch fire, since it could have burned for weeks. Instead, the fire lasted approximately 12 hours. More good news: the birds that nest in the marsh hadn't migrated back and so escaped the blaze. And a pair of nesting bald eagles weren't disturbed by the fire; they simply sat and incubated their eggs while ash fell on their heads, Stewart says.

Unintentional fires are rare on the refuge. But the refuge has for years had a prescribed burn program, where fires are intentionally set in contained areas. The key reason for the program is to rejuvenate areas of the wetlands. Burning areas of dead vegetation also helps to reduce fuel loads, so that when there are unintentional fires they burn out quickly.

Refuge staff had completed a prescribed burn on 31 acres just two days before the Easter fire. That went fine, Stewart says, and was aided by the warm, dry weather the area experienced in days prior.