From the text ... 'Fire has long been absent as a recurring natural phenomenon affecting prairie chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) in Illinois. The Eastern tallgrass prairie has been transformed into a seemingly endless vista of corn (Zea mays), soybeans (Glycine max), and other crops characteristic of modern intensive agriculture. Numbers of prairie chickens have declined from the millions of birds coinciding with pioneer farming efforts on the Illinois prairie about 100 years ago to about 500 birds in the spring of 1972.The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of prescribed burning, to date, as a management tool on nest sanctuaries for prairie chickens in Southeastern Illinois.'From the Summary and Conclusins ... '(1) The abundance and distribution of prairie chickens in Illinois is clearly limited by the availability of suitable grassy vegetation for nesting. Providing attractive, safe nest cover is the primary problem in perpetuating remnant flocks of native prairie chickens in Illinois. (2) All grasslands are not equally attractive to nesting prairie chicken hens. Of particular significance is the fact that unmanaged grasslands are attractive for relatively few years after seeding. (3) Redtop, long the SUBSTITUTE PRAIRIE for prairie chickens in south-central Illinois, provides the dominant type of nest cover on our sanctuaries. . . Redtop is best for nest cover when the stands are diversified with timothy, legumes, dewberries, and weedy forbs such as yarrow and goldenrod.... (4) Timothy is also an attractive nest cover for prairie chickens. . . small quantities of timothy and legumes are added to new redtop seedings to diversify the resultant cover for nesting hens.... (5) Prescribed burning in August is proving beneficial for rejuvenating overage redtop and timothy sods. . . Seed production is also increased by burning.... (6) Because of the high densities of nests and high levels of nest success in plots 2-4 years after burning, it can be concluded that prescribed burning has played a significant role in the dramatic population increase that this endangered species has show in the past 4 years at Bogota.... (7) Establishment of native vegetation ... is an objective in the development of a sanctuary system. Once established, however, some of these grasses present a problem because of excessive height, density, and rankness. Haying and grazing, as well as prescribed burning, appear essential to maintain these grasses in an attractive condition for nesting prairie chicken hens. (8) Combining of grass seed and use of sharecropping in the establishment of new grass seedings are basic tools that offer significant economic as well as ecologic advantages to prairie chicken management. (9) While aspects of grassland management for prairie chickens suggested here are highly artificial in terms of the evolution of the fauna and flora of the prairies of Illinois, they undoubtedly reflect the role of periodic disturbance on the prairie environment and the role of fire as a principle [sic] cause of disturbance and rejuvenation of prairies.'