I agree Kent that restoring a prairie is very different than just using native plants. Restoration is a very specific type of work most often tackled by experts to help preserve a local ecosystem on a grander scale that what most of us are working with at our private residences. In those situations I think they are utilizing the burning not only to hold back invasives, but also to keep the land a proper prairie instead of letting it go through a natural progression like a meadow.
I guess I took it a little off topic from chillybean's original post. My thinking was just that if she wasn't comfortable burning, that is ok. For most of us, just using more native plants is beneficial... and a more attainable goal than full on prairie restoration work.
Where I am now I wouldn't want to tackle that kind of work. For me just adding more and more native plants to my suburban yard has brought in a much bigger variety of insects and birds than I had before. Being a gardener... I do keep it fairly tidy and weeded, which is doable with less than 1/4 acre.
I also gave my brother many of these plants for his house as well. He got real ambitious and dug up 1/4 of his back yard and planted them in grids like a veggie garden with huge mulched paths. It was odd looking! Then he quickly lost interest in it and did nothing for several years. It become overgrown and invaded by some aggressive weeds. But, some natives I hadn't given him also popped up. It was a total mess to a me as a gardener! Yet, it was filled with beautiful blooms and tons of the same insects I was seeing at home. He actually got compliments from a neighbor on his "wildflower garden". His wife wants it gone though and replaced with grass.
Her gardening contribution so far consists mainly of some very unusual cutting back. She goes around other areas of the yard and chops things like daylilies, irises, and miscanthus grass in half when they start to get tall and "messy". I call it the military cut.
