In Praise of Fire

[pith helmet]

In the SE US, fire is often more of a tool than a disaster. Stopped off yesterday in a section of DeSoto Nat Forest while working in SE MS yesterday. This is prime longleaf pine ecosystem: sandy soil, eastern diamondback rattlers, endangered gopher tortoise, and prescribed fire.


This forest is about 500,000 acres and is the most burned of the National Forest system. The reason for this is the necessity of fire in the natural regen of the longleaf pine ecosystem. Actually, most of the smokr jumpers in the US forest service system train here with a man named Eddie Bagget. He sets more fires than anyone in the nation. He also has a big handlebar mustache and wears a cowboy hat to work, which is supercool.

The pic with the Toyota is an unburned section; yaupon, gallberry and small hardwood abound. No natural regen of historic longleaf pine habitat.

The second pic is of an actively managed longleaf pine stand. It has been commercially thinned and regularly burned. The fire is necessary to create light to the forest floor and expose the soil to prepare the seed bed.

Unfortunately, the thick grass in the foreground is an invasive called Cogongrass. It was accidentally introduced from SE Asia in the early 1900’s as a packing material in crates via the port of Mobile ( some say New Orleans but Mobile seems more probable due to the area of spread). It crowds out native species and has little to no wildfire forage usage. The similarly-colored grass in the background is native Broomsedge Bluestem grass, present due to the fire regime.



Again in the foreground here. It is most often spread by logging and dirt moving machines and is only controlled by an aggressive herbicide regime, usually with a soil active herbicide Arsenal, or as a generic, Imazapyr.

There was historically 70,000,000 acres of longleaf pine from SE Texas to VA. Nowadays when properly managed, longleaf pine forests are superb habitat for upland bird species such as wild turkey and bobwhite quail as well as endangered species like red cockaded woodpeckers, gopher tortoise and rare but less endangered species like hog nose snakes.


This is a clients timber stand and the reason I was in that area. This is mature longleaf, probably 100 + years old. The trees are deceptively small in the pic. They are 30” diameter or so. This are was severely impacted by hurricane Katrina in 2005 and has never seen a fire regime. For the latter reason, the understory is full of invasive vegetation with no natural regen of longleaf.

This stand will be harvested, sheared and piled, burned and replanted with longleaf seedlings. A fire regime will be introduced in the year following planting.

 

[billiebob]

The massive 1987 Yellowstone fire was the result of total fire suppression for 40?? years.
Yes, fire is one of the best tools to manage forest fires.

 

[pith helmet]

The massive 1987 Yellowstone fire was the result of total fire suppression for 40?? years.
Yes, fire is one of the best tools to manage forest fires.

My post is mostly about habitat regeneration, but yeah, fuel will find a way to burn one way or another.

 

[Mickey Bitsko]

Humans are geniuses,
Mother nature been using this technique for billions of years.
Good we're finally catching on.

 

[craig333]

A big problem we have in CA is everyone likes prescribed fire but no one likes smoke. Especially a problem in areas like the Lake Tahoe Basin. By the time you get clearances from all the various agencies its usually too late to burn.

 

[Mickey Bitsko]

I lived there for 30 years and all the trees above incline up and over Mt rose were dead in the 80s. One day they will pay the price.

 

[pith helmet]

A big problem we have in CA is everyone likes prescribed fire but no one likes smoke. Especially a problem in areas like the Lake Tahoe Basin. By the time you get clearances from all the various agencies its usually too late to burn.

The problem of a more dense population I suppose. It’s greatly encouraged here in the SE. Smoke management is the key for sure. When we call the state for a burn permit the morning of a burn, they are technically issuing a permit for your smoke, not the fire. They will rarely disallow burns due to wind or low humidity unless low humidity conditions have gone on long enough to necessitate a full on burn ban.

 

[Regcabguy]

The Native Americans had it right.

 

[craig333]

Indians didn't have CARB to deal with.





california air resources board-an agency with far too much power imho.

 

[slowlane]

That's interesting about controlled burns and the long leaf pines. It is unfortunate for native ecosystems that our society so vigorously suppressed and prevented fires for so long, but I completely understand the reasoning for doing so. However, it is nice to see fire being used to maintain natural areas where it is feasible to do so.

We have a similar problem with oak regeneration in SE Wisconsin; invasive buckthorn crowds out the understory and leafs out much earlier than the native oaks shading out any seedlings that try to grow. It also displaces nearly all of the other native vegetation creating an impenetrable thicket of crap. The DNR burns a fair amount of the state forest lands and it makes an obvious difference in understory plant diversity. We are fortunate in Wisconsin to get enough rain that controlled burns are typically a very low risk proposition so they can take place regularly. Pleasant Valley Conservancy is a really well-maintained prairie oak savannah west of Madison that I really enjoy hiking through. It is burned in rotating plots annually, resulting in a wide variety of native plants which I haven't seen in such abundance anywhere else around here.

Here's a picture at Pleasant Valley Conservancy. I'm standing in a small prairie with the fire-managed oak savannah on the right hill. The left hill farther back is not part of the conservancy, has much thicker tree density, and is not burned to my knowledge. Remaining oak savannahs are really rare in Wisconsin.

An old bur oak with native Indian grass in the foreground on one of the hills at the same place.

 

[billiebob]

A big problem we have in CA is everyone likes prescribed fire but no one likes smoke.

yep.... I live in the Kootenays wood heat is everywhere..... we get new comers complaining about the smoke from wood stoves..... the locals tell them to go back home lol. Everyone wants to live in the forest..... no one understands the reality of fire.

After 5 years of record forest fire losses the Province is funding massive fire breaks around communities. I will post some pictures..... I cannot wait for the tourists to complain about all the "logging". And yes, every tree cut down to protect communities is a source of revenue.

One of the pics from this springs Fire Smart clean up, building fire breaks around every BC community. Gonna be a smoky spring eh.



This spot was dense forest last year. A crown fire in the asking. Today the logs are profit and the risk of fire much reduced.
Within 100 yards of this is a scale and log deck which got hit by lightning last year.... Sunday at 9pm. Thanks a massive community effort the log deck fire was out by morning and clean up complete within 24 hours. This is all inside the Village limits. I cannot say enough to praise the loggers, contractors who jumped in and saved the Village. This was within days of the Lyton, BC fire which destroyed the town.



Lyton, BC the after/before pic.



How hot was BC last year ?

 

[pith helmet]

That's interesting about controlled burns and the long leaf pines. It is unfortunate for native ecosystems that our society so vigorously suppressed and prevented fires for so long, but I completely understand the reasoning for doing so. However, it is nice to see fire being used to maintain natural areas where it is feasible to do so.

We have a similar problem with oak regeneration in SE Wisconsin; invasive buckthorn crowds out the understory and leafs out much earlier than the native oaks shading out any seedlings that try to grow. It also displaces nearly all of the other native vegetation creating an impenetrable thicket of crap. The DNR burns a fair amount of the state forest lands and it makes an obvious difference in understory plant diversity. We are fortunate in Wisconsin to get enough rain that controlled burns are typically a very low risk proposition so they can take place regularly. Pleasant Valley Conservancy is a really well-maintained prairie oak savannah west of Madison that I really enjoy hiking through. It is burned in rotating plots annually, resulting in a wide variety of native plants which I haven't seen in such abundance anywhere else around here.

Here's a picture at Pleasant Valley Conservancy. I'm standing in a small prairie with the fire-managed oak savannah on the right hill. The left hill farther back is not part of the conservancy, has much thicker tree density, and is not burned to my knowledge. Remaining oak savannahs are really rare in Wisconsin.

An old bur oak with native Indian grass in the foreground on one of the hills at the same place.

Thats beautiful. I admire the project and practices you have been implementing on the WI prairie.

 

[slowlane]

Thats beautiful. I admire the project and practices you have been implementing on the WI prairie.

Thanks. I wish I could say this is the place I volunteer at, but it isn't. My little piece of prairie pales in comparison to Pleasant Valley, but I like it just the same. Eagle Center Prairie where I work at really could stand to be burned but it backs right up to a subdivision on two sides so burn insurance is very expensive and the terrain is such that you'd have to manually mow the fire breaks. It's been burned before and is overdue, but that's beyond the scope of what I can do as a volunteer there.

 

[slowlane]

From 2004-2009 I lived in central Kansas, and just east of me was the Flint Hills, arguably the main ranching area in the state. The range land includes parts of several counties including all of Chase County. They burn these hills extensively every spring, tens of thousands of acres each year, which helps the new grasses grow quicker and keeps the pastures brush-free. The smoke could be thick in late March, and I can remember having to stay inside on the really bad days due to smoke aggravating my asthma. They would occasionally burn at night, and I loved to drive out there to watch the wall of fire advance across the darkness. Big and little bluestem grass stretches to the horizon in all directions. Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is in the heart of the Flint Hills. It's operated by the National Park Service and has miles of trails to hike. It's awesome when you get way back out there on a hill and turn 360 without seeing a fence in sight.

I used to have some pictures of freshly burned areas in the Flint Hills but I can't find them. Here is one from Tallgrass Prairie Preserve when I visited it in May 2018. The green area was burned about a month and a half prior and contrasts to the tan unburned section beyond. The Flint Hills are very rocky as the picture shows, which is why it's one of the few areas in Kansas that aren't farmed with row crops. I would highly recommend going there if you ever find yourself in central Kansas.

The lighting is crap in this midday picture but I'm on top of a hill and the horizon is probably 15-20 miles out. This is early in the season so the grass is very short yet. Later on the rocks are hidden from view in the tall grass. There's a barely visible road that separates the green and tan sections of grasses and the group of little black dots a bit right of center is a small herd of cattle. You feel very tiny and insignificant out there.