We are fired up about burning for healthy forests!

Joint Fire Sciences Program

February 21st, 2012 Filed Under Blog

The Joint Fire Services Program is a valuable resource for prescribed burn managers, planners, and research scientist. The Fire Science Digest is one of their tools for disseminating information. Their web site is www.firescience.gov. All prescribed burners should review this site and the information made available there to stay abreast of the latest technology and policy. Part of that program is the Southern Fire Exchange which all southern practitioners should find informative. Their web site is www.southernfireexchange.org . They have an email list serve type facility. I recommend it to all burners.

Burn Plan Forms

February 21st, 2012 Filed Under Blog

Burn Plans
During the recent steering committee meeting of the Alabama Prescribed Fire Council Daryl Lawson mentioned the idea of a standard burn plan form. The Alabama Prescribed burn law says that for a certified prescribed burn manager to be protected under the liability provisions of the law a burn plan must have been used. It doesn’t mention how the form should be structured. After having been involved in several litigations involving prescribed burning and seeing some of the problems related to burn plans I came to the conclusion that a standardized burn plan was a recipe for disaster. Too many burn managers were using one of the forms out of the “Guide for Prescribed Fire in Southern Forests” February 1989, PMS 431-2, NFES 2108 (still available from the NWCG Cache in Boise, Idaho) without thinking about what they were doing and over looking important information. Subsequently I suggested that no two burns were alike. Each burn and burn site is unique and therefore requires a form adapted for that track. There is no standardized form. Many people approached me wanting a form. I ended up developing a draft generic burn plan and stressed the need to adapt the plan to each track. That form is available on www.rxfire.net in the documents section. Hopefully no one tries to use the form as is but rather adapts it to their situation. I still feel strongly that the professional certified prescribed burn manager including the land owner who only does burns infrequently should think the plan through and take into consideration all the important factors including contingencies.
I throw this out for discussion. What say you. .

Failed Policies

June 30th, 2011 Filed Under Blog

The failed policies of the past related to wildland fire cost the nation millions of dollars annually. In the early 1900 when the USFA was just beginning to take shape a policy decision was made to stop all wildland fire. Prior to that time “Indian burning” or “light burning” had been the practice for centuries. Fule loads in most areas were relatively light. When fires swept through forests they were of low intensity acting as an agent of renewal rather than an agent of distruction. In the 100+ years since that time fuel loads in many forests have accumulated to very unnatural conditions and to ecologically unsustainable levels.

A proactive policy would have continued the “light burning” and kept the fuels loads at much more sustainable levels. The re-active posture that the land management agencies find themselve in today is not only ecologically unsustainable, it is economically unsustainable. The bureauaracy of the wildland fire susppression community is deeply entrenched commanding hugh budgets and resulting in hugh discharges of smoke into the atmosphere. The cycle needs to be broken. Strong leadership will be required to stand up to the establishmnet and bring about policy change. Our forests and society need more fire on the ground during manageable weather conditions to minimize the impact of large scale conflagration during periods of drastic fire conditions.

Management ???

May 21st, 2011 Filed Under Blog

Can quail be a focus for non-industrial private land owners? The wildlife community seems to have focused on a system of forest management that lends itself to quail habitat and at the same time is good for deer and turkey (lower basal area with more light on the ground). How can we get land owners in an area to manage in a way that the aggregate of their management across a water shed or landscape is greater. It is a social challenge more than a scientific challenge. Prescribed fire is at the center of the management required. Prescribed fire cooperatives (or what other word best describes the need) can serve to help non-industrial private land owners, especially new forest land owners whether they buy or inherit, develop sound management practices.

Check out the following.

From: noreply+feedproxy@google.com [mailto:noreply+feedproxy@google.com] On Behalf Of News
Sent: Saturday, May 21, 2011 12:09 AM
To: kent@rxfire.net
Subject: NBCI – In The News

NBCI – In The News

________________________________________
Local Conservationists Are Our Foundation
Posted: 20 May 2011 12:30 PM PDT
Local-level quail conservationists are the foundation of the movement to restore bobwhites. No matter how tall the states may stand in pursuit of their quail stewardship duty, the states cannot succeed without the full partnership of a vigorous grassroots support base.

A central theme of the NBCI and of our strategy for restoring bobwhites range-wide might now be coming into focus. I call it the NBCI “pyramid strategy,” which aims to address head-on the societal reality that bobwhite restoration has less to do with science and technology than it does with people, politics and money. One of the greatest strengths of bobwhite conservation is we are loaded with brilliant scientists and managers who have amassed an impressive record of knowledge and experience about quail biology and management. Conversely, our weakness is our tepid organizational skills to make effective use of all the people who are crucial to our success. The NBCI aims to begin fixing this weakness, by catalyzing a “quail machine,” of people who collaborate synergistically among all three essential levels – local, state and national.

For decades, dedicated people – striving under the handicap of limited leadership, collaboration or strategy at any higher level – have made valiant efforts at local levels to restore quail. Such efforts have been undertaken by an array of conservationists such as landowners, local chapters of sportsmen’s groups and individual agency biologists. Except for scattered hotspots, almost all of these efforts have fallen short, and bobwhite populations range-wide continue to slide.
This outcome to date implies nothing about the foundationally important role of local quail conservationists. Indeed, even in the biggest-picture view of the future, the largest piece of the necessary quail machine is the local level, at the bottom of and supporting the rest of the pyramid.
The local level is the prime niche of such vital partners as chapters of non-government quail organizations: Quail Unlimited, Quail Forever, Quail and Upland Wildlife Federation, Quail Coalition and even the National Wild Turkey Federation, as well as myriad other valuable conservation groups too numerous to list. It also is the realm of private-lands biologists – sponsored by agencies, organizations and foundations – whose role is to assist private landowners who wish to improve their habitat. And, of course, the local level is where the land and the habitat are, and the people who own and manage them, whether private or public.
Some of the key roles that local quail conservationists can and must play to make the NBCI quail machine work include:
 Be a catalyst — urge state wildlife agencies to develop or strengthen NBCI-based initiatives;
 Support those agencies energetically, when they do step up;
 Provide grassroots political support for quail conservation, at state and national levels;
 Raise funds to boost joint projects that add value to and build upon a state NBCI step-down strategy;
 Rally more and more hunters, birders, producers, garden clubs, scouts, etc. to the cause;
 Engage and assist landowners, especially in priority quail restoration areas;
 Provide physical management assistance to landowners, to get the work done.
As my long-time friend and mentor, Reggie Thackston (Georgia Wildlife Resources Division), reminds me from time to time, “If it doesn’t eventually happen on the ground, it doesn’t matter.” The local level is where it hits the ground for bobwhites. Without grassroots capability and organization and power at that level, nothing else we do will matter. The states, and the NBCI, need local quail conservationists. We all need each other.

You are subscribed to email updates from News
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.
Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Joint Fire Services Program

April 21st, 2011 Filed Under Blog

Have you visited the Southern Fire Exchange web site or gotten their news letter? Lots of good information. Also, very important: this is the venue to have input into Joint Fire Services research efforts.

To view this newsletter, visit: http://www.southernfireexchange.org/newsletters/v1-3.pdf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Southern Fire Exchange – A JFSP Knowledge Exchange Consortia
Visit the SFE Resource Center: www.southernfireexchange.org
Send feedback, questions, or subscribe to the listserve: sfe@ifas.ufl.edu
*****************************************************************************************************
I found Dr John Weirs article on burning days interesting. Makes me think about John Stivers, “Every day is a burning day”. When we learn to think in terms of fuel moisture, KBDI, and in stand wind speed rather than month, days since the last rain and 20’ wind speed it opens up a whole lot of opportunities to do very effective burning. With the recent increase in interest in summer (growing season) burning this is particularly productive.

Hot Times

March 22nd, 2011 Filed Under Blog

It is starting to get hot. So what is new? It happens every year. Be cautious. Pine trees scortch easily in warm weather. Lonfleaf pine is candling and subject to severe damage. Older trees can be burned under by selecting conditions where the fuel moisture is higher, maybe 10 – 13, say an RH of 40+ and a temp of 80 or less. Plan the day so most of the burning is done early in the diurnal cycle, say 8 AM to 12 noon. Then lay off until about 4 PM and try to finish up. Plan burn block size to fit the window. Whatever you do don’t get in a hurry and try to speed things up with strip head fires or by bringing the corners along. Flank fires can get pretty hot too. Spots are cooler but can get too hot as well. Patience is a virtue and an essential ingredient for late spring burning.
As a very general rule of thumb, pine trees grow at about 5% a year. Scorching can reduce the annual growth. That is equivalent to taking a deduction on interest at the bank. In fact if you really turn the whole crown brown, the tree may survive, but you will lose the whole years growth. If you are managing for critters it may not be a big deal but if you are managing for future revenue, retirement or a college fund, you may take a substantial hit.
A well planned burn executed with close attention to the planned factors, weather, fuels, etc. can produce good results and should be the objective of every prescribed burn. Cavalier attitudes and shoddy planning an execution can lead to less than optimum burning. What is your goal?
Minimize risk. Maximize benefit. All at a reasonable cost.

Spring burning

March 9th, 2011 Filed Under Blog

Spring burning is in full swing when the wet fronts are not upon us. Coordinating burns with necessary wind direction and locations is always a challenge. Scheduling multiple burns for multiple land owners is a challenge. You want to help everyone but sometimes is is just difficult to get to certain tracts. That coupled with the limited availablity of helpers requires good planning and an open line of communication with landowners. Travel distance can complecate the situation too.

Hard times

March 9th, 2011 Filed Under Blog

Land owners have been blessed with an opportunity to apply for an ARRA grant (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). In some ways it is a blessing. It is a way for a landowner, usually one who has not done much burning, to get assistnace with a much needed burn on their land. The devil seems to be in the details as usual. Lots o documentaion must be done. Part of the idea is to put people to work. The problem comes when you realize that the problems surronding doing a small acreage burn, say 40 acres, exceed the amount of money available. By the time you drive to the track a couple times to analyze the situation both from a burn status as well as smoke screening and contingencies, what with the price of gas and and burn fuel, there isn’t much to cover the burners time much less anything to hire help. Small tracts are a problem. Mayb ethe ARRA grant adninistrators could consider a graduated scale? You can burn a 400 acre tract for much less that a forty acre tract and come out.

Management Objectives

December 16th, 2010 Filed Under Blog

December 15, 2010 Today I had the good fortune to help with a site prep burn in Georgia East of Columbus on a deep sandy site that had been stocked with a dense stand of sand pine. That was probably a mistake that has now been hidden by the saw, herbicide and fire. Typical of many site prep burns, there was not a whole lot of broadcast fuels. There were lots of jack pot piles that burned hot. We had cloud cover, 40 degree max temperature and RH in the mid twenties. The wind was fairly light. The site is plantable but not “clean” by any stretch. The owner plans to come back on the deep sand with longleaf containerized seedlings. Hopefully they will be planted in the next week. Much of the adjoining property is stocked with natural longleaf, a much better species for the site than sand pine. The area had been un-burned for many years which resulted in a mess of scrub hardwoods typical of the sand hills. Fortunately for the land owner, they were able to have a “fuel wooder” work through most of the stands and clean them. The results are beautiful. The land owner did not receive any cash consideration for the wood but did receive a valuable timber stand improvement job. The stocking is probably 60 BA at the most. I see a lot of place like that these days. In order to keep the stands productive it will be necessary to use fire of a frequent return interval to maintain the pine component of the stands. Longleaf is the obvious species to work with on these sites. In places where there is still a fully stocked stand of loblolly, longleaf is actually invading the loblolly stands. How many times do you see that? Another interesting thing is the area is well populated with gopher tortoises. The owner wants to see the piney woods management of the area perpetuated so he has granted a conservation easement on the property.
The owner was very excited about the “new” management strategy. He stated that this is the first time he has received forestry advice that brought about the results he wanted. In the past he has been given forestry advice that was slanted toward strictly solid wood products with no considerations of the “other” production functions of the land. He felt like the people giving advice in the past did not consider his expectations.
The main management objective I was taught in forestry school was to work toward the landowner’s objectives so long as they were legal and ethical. Have foresters forgotten this primary objective?

Pyronshot ignition

November 14th, 2010 Filed Under Blog

Friday I had the opportunity to visit Feiled Support Service, Rusty Boys and Chris Yoder, they gave me a demonstration of the Pyroshot, http://pyroshot.com/ , and the Green Dragon. They are both impressive prescribed burn ignition devices. I would think they will find wide spread application on site prep burns and on areas that are difficult to travers such as a tye-tye swamp. I hope to have on in hand soon to give it a real world try.

While there I met Bill McMillan with Helicopter Express. We had been looking for a vendor to do helicopter ignition in Alabama. It turns out they are ready and willing. In fact apparently they were under contract with the Alabama Forestry Commission in Northeast Alabama during the recent Burn Alert.

« Previous Entries

Recent Posts

Categories

Archives

Site

Links