First ever Prairie Fire Summit takes place in Regina

WATCH: The first ever Prairie Fire Summit was held in Regina on Tuesday.

The first ever Prairie Fire Summit took place in the Queen City on Tuesday. The conference featured fire experts from across the Canadian Prairies who spoke about the importance of using fire as a resource management tool that restores and maintains prairie grasslands.

Since Europeans settled here, fire has been viewed as an enemy and all fires were extinguished as quickly as possible.

The conference experts say fires and grazing were the norm for thousands of years here on the prairies and that prescribed burns were done in a safe manner help to revitalize the grasslands ecosystem, as well as reduce the risk of wildfires.

• Download the CTV News app to get breaking news alerts sent to your device

“Using fire as a land management tool helps reduce catastrophic fire risk, partially because you have buildup of dead grass material over time. Also, you have an increase in tree and shrub material as well, so you have these shifts and buildup of fuel,” explained Renny Grilz with the Canadian Prairies Fire Exchange.

While the grassland takes a year or two to recover from a prescribed burn, the grass and forage crops come back better than before, and with a higher quality of feed for livestock and wildlife.