Don't be alarmed to see smoke at the Karner Blue Sanctuary in Port Franks on Thursday.
Trained professionals are conducting a prescribed burn of about 3.5 hectares of the 37 acre property.
The goal is to restore rare oak savanna habitat for native species with the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
Lambton Shores Fire Chief James Marshall said they're aware of the burn, and are prepared to assist if needed.
"First and foremost it's about the regeneration of the habitat along with fuel reduction," said Marshall. "They'll be getting rid of a lot of dry waste that's littering the floor of the forest. It probably won't prevent a fire from breaking out in the future, but it will prevent that fire from growing and becoming unmanageable. A managed, control burn that clears up that fuel load makes it much easier for us to deal with if something happens."
Marshall said signage has been posted and neighbours have been notified.
"This makes sense in a forest, but it also makes sense around your house," he said. "Make sure you've got your leaves and whatnot cleared from around the base of your house and get rid of any build up of materials that you can clear away. This is especially important if you live near a woodland, just to get rid of that extra fuel load."
Lambton Wildlife purchased the lands in 1988 to protect the last remaining colony of Karner Blue Butterflies in Canada.
Despite these efforts, the butterfly was extirpated by 1991.
The hope is to eventually create a healthy ecosystem for the wild lupine flower with the goal of eventually re-introducing the rare Karner Blue butterfly to the area.
This would likely have to be human assisted because the butterfly's population is also dwindling in the United States.
Lambton Wildlife said a number of controlled burns have been undertaken in the past, but the results have not as positive as had been expected.
The land also has a number of other plants including pipsissewa, large-leaved shinleaf, round-leaved pyrola, prairie ragwort, thyme-leaved sandwort, lyre-leaved rock cress, bearberry, plains puccoon, rough blazing star, cylindric blazing star and butterfly weed.
A similar controlled burn is set to take place at Pinery Provincial Park in the next few weeks.