Research-driven tool supports smarter grassland fire management.
Every year, ranchers and land managers across the Great Plains use prescribed fire as an important tool for maintaining healthy grasslands. These controlled burns help manage vegetation, support ecosystem health, and reduce the accumulation of fuels that can contribute to larger wildfires.
Researchers at Kansas State University use prescribed burns to study and help preserve one of North America’s last remaining tallgrass prairie ecosystems. Fire is a natural and essential part of prairie ecology, helping maintain healthy grasslands, limit the encroachment of woody plants, and support a diverse range of plant and animal species.
Through carefully managed burns, researchers examine how fire interacts with grazing, climate, soil health, and other environmental factors to influence the prairie’s long-term resilience. Decades of ecological research at Konza Prairie have made the site a globally recognized outdoor laboratory, providing valuable insight into how grassland ecosystems respond and adapt to environmental change.
Although most prescribed burns are completed safely, changing weather conditions and other factors can sometimes cause fires to spread beyond their intended boundaries, threatening nearby communities.
To help reduce these risks, Mayowa George, a doctoral researcher in the Carl and Melinda Helwig Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Kansas State University, is developing a specialized tool to improve fire-risk assessment across the region. His work was featured in an article by Julia Hall.
George's interest in fire science stems from personal experience. As a child, he witnessed a major fire in his community that caused significant loss of life and property. The event inspired him to better understand why fires become destructive and how similar disasters can be prevented.
His research focuses on developing a localized Grasslands Fire Danger Index (GFDI), a tool specifically designed for the environmental conditions of the Great Plains. Many existing fire-danger models were created for different regions, vegetation types, or wildfire management programs, making them less suitable for grassland ecosystems.
The GFDI incorporates several environmental variables, including wind speed, temperature, grass curing, fuel moisture, and long-term drought conditions. By combining these factors, the index can estimate how easily a grass fire may spread and how difficult it could be to control.
In addition to developing the index, George has created submodels for predicting dead fuel moisture and grass curing, both critical factors in determining fire behavior. His advisor, Zifei Liu, assistant professor in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, credits George's dedication, persistence, and growth as a researcher for the project's progress.
The goal of the GFDI is not to replace the expertise of ranchers and land managers but to provide an additional layer of scientific support. Experienced land managers have spent generations observing weather patterns, vegetation conditions, and fire behavior to guide their decisions. George's tool is designed to complement that knowledge by organizing data from weather stations, fuel-moisture models, and vegetation assessments into practical information for prescribed-burning decisions.
"The knowledge held by ranchers and land managers in the Great Plains is extremely valuable," George said. "My goal is to develop a tool that works alongside land managers and supports their judgment, and when we can give them the data and insights needed to plan safer burns, we can reduce fire risk and improve overall safety."
The index may also help document and preserve valuable field knowledge, making it more accessible to new land managers and individuals working in unfamiliar areas.
George's research reflects his strong academic foundation in agricultural engineering. He earned a Bachelor of Technology in Agricultural Engineering from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Nigeria before completing a master's degree in Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Kansas State University. His agricultural background has shaped his understanding of fire as both an effective grassland management tool and an important public safety concern.
His contributions to fire science have earned international recognition. In 2026, the International Association of Wildland Fire named George the sole doctoral recipient of its Graduate Student Scholarship, making him the first Kansas State University student to receive the prestigious award.
Watch the video below "Why burn?" By the Konza Biological Research Station
Photo Credit: Kansas State University from the video