Safe & Successful Prescribed Burn for Dummies
A massive habitat improvement. With the ending of a CRP contract the TPO gang was able to set up a cash rent agreement with a local farmer set them up for late season success. Step one to prep for planting: Burn it down... And have fun while doing it!
And that’s a wrap, another successful burn is in the books. What a relief!! There are few habitat improvements out there that rank alongside a prescribed burn on the stress scale for me. You hear stories all the time of people having a fire get away from them due to one reason or another. Personally I strive to not be them. One shift in wind, one detail that wasn’t planned for, or a rouge ember jumping the firebreak are constantly racing through my mind while burning. Over the years although, we have executed a few successful burns and have had the pleasure to witness first hand the benefits it provides our property. Keep it slow and keep it safe. That’s the best advice I can give.
Sadly although, the fear of a prescribed burn getting out of control often prevents people from exercising this ancient habitat improvement. In the following sections I will work to ease any anxieties you may have about a prescribed burn turning into a full fledged wild fire. In the following sections well briefly go over: 1. Benefits of a prescribed burn. 2. Development of a burn plan. 3. Tools for the trade.
Rules and Regulations:
As with all habitat improvement advice, we encourage you to go to your states DNR website to read up on rules and regulations specific to your state prior to doing a prescribed burn.
Benefits of a Prescribed Burn:
A prescribed burn can really be a game changer for the wildlife and habitat on your parcel. Everything from pheasants to turkey, to even whitetails will thank you for the improvement. Below is a quick list of benefits cited by Iowa DNR whom encourage prescribed burns due to these benefits.
- Control undesirable vegetation (e.g. brome, invasive species, trees and brush, etc.)
- Manage native plant diversity and composition
- Prepare sites for harvesting, planting, or seeding
- Enhance seed production
- Control plant disease
- Reduce wild re hazards
- Remove slash and debris
- Release nutrients back into the soil for maximizing new grass regrowth
Although this list is long, it has left out the reason for our most recent burn. That is preparing a field to be planted for crops that has recently come out of CRP. For us our most recent prescribed burn was a technique used to clear the overgrown grasses and thatch that had developed since our last burn to clear the way for a spring planting of cash rented corn. A game changer for our parcel indeed. In the spirit of helping the reader think outside the box. I will also add we have also used fire in the past to help clear potential food plot sites throughout different properties. There is no better tool in our eyes to help clear a field while releasing nutrients in the soil than a prescribed burn. Is there an area on your parcel that you would love to see a food plot in but you don’t have the equipment to mow down or plow in the grasses to get to the dirt? Perhaps you could give prescribed burning a try.
Develop a Burn Plan:
Once the decision has been made to execute a burn, our suggestion as a first step would be to create a burn plan. A complete and detailed burn plan can be downloaded from your States DNR or NRCS office websites. Typically they detail out the finer details of the events, date, time, local officials to contact, neighbors to contact, or emergency response considerations. These are all great items that should be included, but in the spirit of skipping details and me being a visual learner. Let’s cut to the chase and throw a picture up for explanation purposes.
Below is a great example of understanding your environment around you, and how it can help aid in controlling your fire. More importantly, this pictorial could serve as a burn plan for the two individuals executing the below prescribed burn. Knowing your property and how your burn will play out is one of the most important planning pieces of executing a successful burn.
Picture credit Iowadnr.gov
A few things to point out below.
1. Wind Direction: The red ring at the top of the picture will burn several times faster than the red at the bottom of the picture due to the current wind direction shown below. As you can see they chose to first create a large preburn (black area) to serve as a fire break prior to lighting to upwind side.
2. Fire Breaks: Fire breaks can be made up of several things, creeks, streams, roads, lines created by spraying water, or as in the case below, mowed lines. The intent of the fire break is to help aid in controlling the fire. As with all successful projects although, this is where most of your homework prior to the burn will need to take place. Often times we are not fortunate enough to have natural barriers helping us control fire, so mowing lines has been a technique we have used several times in the past. The typical rule of thumb is mow as close to the ground as possible and you want the mowed line 3x wider than your fire will be tall to help prevent the fire from “jumping”.
Noticed: Mowed fire breaks on the right side of the picture preventing the neighboring CRP from being burned.
3. Back Burning First: “Back burning” can be visualized at the bottom of the animated burn plan picture. In short, it is when the fire is ignited down wind, or against the wind first. This will prevent the fire from taking off and going out of control. Another outstanding benefit to back burning is creating a virtually impenetrable fire break.
Tools of the Trade:
So up to this point we have decided a prescribed burn is the habitat improvement for us. We have taken an aerial of our property, developed a solid burn plan, and done our homework by mowing, plowing, or understanding natural firebreaks. Now it's time to get out and face the fire.
Manpower: Typically we try and make this an event with too many helping hands in case something gets out of control, so invite anyone interested in helping. Being able to cover ground quickly in case something gets out of control is key, a lot of people find this a great time to use their UTVs or ATVs on their property.
Ignition: Lighting a long strip of grass has always been the brunt of our labor during burns. There are many ways you can do it, but typically we have always taken yard rakes, made a big wad of grass, ignited the grass on the rake and simply drug it through the dry grass. It’s a good way of having an extinguishing type tool in your hands in case the fire creeps into your fire break as you are going, while still providing a nice slow and safe pace for the burn. Other products such as kerosene drip cans are also used for prescribe burns. A quick search shows they could be purchased online for just over $100. We personally don’t use them simply because we don’t do enough burns to justify the cost. Or maybe it is because I know I would have too much fun with it and the fire would no doubt get out of control!
Clumps of dried grass drug through the CRP can be a great substitute for a Kerosene Drip Can.
Extinguishing: At all costs. Have something on hand that can, if needed save your butt. Several tools could be used to accomplish this task that will need to be taken place throughout your burn. We have used everything from rakes and shovels, to my personal favorite, a leaf blower. There will often be times were we need to continue to reinforce our line or mowed fire break. We have found that there is no tool greater than a leaf blower. It quickly pushes back the fire line onto itself if not all but blowing it out. It doesn’t have to be powerful, just simply enough to push a little air. We personally have used a single hand held leaf blower in the past.
Conclusion: And that’s it!! A somewhat daunting task made simple. Again make sure to check with your local offices to get the date range you can burn in your area. Above all be safe! Slow and steady wins the race. Your neighbors timber will thank you for that. Finally next time you are wanting to clear a large field for a food plot, think to yourself, could I use fire?
