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A prescribed burn at Verdant Lawn rejuvenates native grasses, controls invasive species, and enriches soil health.
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This land management technique from time immemorial fosters biodiversity, enhances habitat resilience, and supports the long-term ecological vitality of the landscape — ensuring the land remains a dynamic and thriving green space for years to come.
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Verdant Lawn Fire Maintenance
Charlottesville, VA
2009 - Ongoing
NBW designers recently participated in the burning of Verdant Lawn’s bowl meadow in the late spring of 2025. Grassland fires – both wild and human-induced – have been a part of North America’s ecosystem for millennia. Carefully implemented “prescribed burning” stimulates regeneration of grasslands to enhance plant biodiversity, limit invasive species, support pollinators and other wildlife, and amplify the landscape’s resiliency and ability to curb climate change.
This inaugural “prescribed fire” at Verdant Lawn marks the start of a long-awaited new chapter in the farm’s land management and was met with much excitement from the collaborators that worked to make it happen. Partners for the burn present on site included members of the farm management team, burn specialists from J.W. Townsend, and designers from Nelson Byrd Woltz. The farm’s meadows will continue to be monitored for ecological health and biodiversity with further systematic burns to occur in the future.
Present on site: Christian Kochuba, David Lepage, Brian Yoder, J.W. Townsend team, Verdant Farm Management team.