By Scout Nelson
Prescribed burning plays an important role in maintaining healthy grasslands across the Great Plains. However, changing weather conditions and environmental factors can occasionally cause controlled burns to become difficult to manage, creating risks for people, property, and natural resources.
To help address these challenges, Mayowa George, a doctoral student in the Carl and Melinda Helwig Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Kansas State University, is developing a tool to improve fire-risk assessment during prescribed burns. His research aims to provide ranchers and land managers with better information while supporting the practical knowledge they have developed over generations.
George's interest in fire science began after a major fire affected his community during his childhood, causing loss of life and property damage. The experience inspired him to study why fires become destructive and explore ways to reduce similar risks in the future.
Recognizing that many existing fire danger tools were designed for different environments, George identified the need for a system specifically tailored to Great Plains grasslands. He is developing the Grasslands Fire Danger Index (GFDI), a localized tool designed to evaluate fire conditions during prescribed burning seasons.
The GFDI combines several environmental factors, including wind speed, temperature, grass curing levels, fuel moisture, and long-term drought conditions. George has also created supporting models that measure dead fuel moisture and grass curing, both of which are important indicators of fire behavior.
The goal of the index is to help land managers better understand fire danger before conducting prescribed burns. Rather than replacing local knowledge, the tool is intended to strengthen decision-making by providing additional scientific information.
The GFDI brings together data from weather stations, vegetation observations, and fuel-moisture models into an easy-to-use framework. This approach can help document patterns recognized by experienced land managers and make that knowledge more accessible to newer professionals.
Emphasizing the value of local expertise, George said, "The knowledge held by ranchers and land managers in the Great Plains is extremely valuable. 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."
George's work is rooted in his background in agricultural engineering. He earned a Bachelor of Technology in Agricultural Engineering from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology in Nigeria and later completed a master's degree in Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Kansas State University.
His research has received significant recognition within the fire science community. 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 earn the distinction.
Photo Credit: kansas-state-university
Categories: Kansas, Equipment & Machinery