This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: burn safety

Linda Adair makes so many good points in her message below, that 
there is little to add, except some historical points:

 It is likely that prairie plants pre-historically experienced fire 
mostly as a result of exposure to summer fires, ignited by dry 
lighnting during droughty spells. Though more intense and extensive 
than our small prescribed burns today, such fires would in time reach 
a stream or other natural fire break, or get rained out, or otherwise 
get extinguished, leaving large parts of the landscape unburned. From 
these unburned refugia, animal life could recolonize the burned out 
areas. 

 Then humans arrived and began their "fire management" 
practices on what appears to have been a much more frequent and 
seasonally variable basis, in so doing "creating" the tallgrass 
prairie in a region of climate and soils that readily support lush 
forests in the absence of frequent fire. It is very likely that some 
animal and plant species (including sloths, mammoths and 
saber-tooths?!) were driven to extinction by these practices, while 
those comprising the prairie came to into prevalence. Nevertheless, 
both natural and human-induced extinguishing of the fires would 
have left unburned refugia in those times, as well.

 Leap forward to today, when only the tiniest and most far-flung 
fragments of the prairie ecosystem remain, and we are forced 
to an awareness of responsible management of these precious relicts. 
Rotational burning, fires only as intense as necessary to maintain 
the plant diversity, burning during the season least likely to 
destroy animals (of all sizes), and alternatives to burning such 
as mowing or grazing become necessary -- no matter what the 
historical fire regime -- in order to protect the already severaly 
diminished representation of prairie life that remains. 

 This applies particularly to prairie remnants. It must be said that 
a good way to establish high quality prairie-like vegetation on 
former agricultural or mined land may be to burn as frequently and 
as intensely as possible until the vegetation gets established, then 
to allow the rest of the community to develop. After establishing 
the vegetation, we can go on manage for overall diversity. This said, 
it may be that the situation of our diminished prairie biodiversity 
is so severe, that we need to begin thinking of ways to develop and 
manage for overall diversity right from the start.

On 17 Apr 00 at 13:15, Linda Adair wrote:

> Regarding Fall Burns - I tried it once and decided to not do it
> again.  I killed too many lizards and toads for my comfort.  After
> almost a decade of burning on my property I have decided that there
> is only a very small window of time that I am comfortable burning. 
> I burn in Texas so my schedule is different from people in other
> areas.  I wait until it has been cold long enough to ensure that the
> lizards and toads are well hidden and the plants are dormant.  I
> must also burn before the plants with winter rosettes are too big
> and before the rabbits are nesting.  I have found rabbit nests at
> the surface of the soil buried deep in grass.  (Actually, my dogs
> found the nests.  I used to think that they nested in burrows.  I
> guess some do.) These 2 constraints limit me to a burn window of
> about 4 weeks.
> 
> Then, I choose to wait until the soil has been wet by a good rain. 
> It may be dry down here for months and burning on top of a drought
> doesn't sound too good to me.  So, I then need to wait about 5 days
> for the foliage to dry up.  But, I must coordinate the moisture
> conditions of the soil, vegetation, and atmosphere with the wind
> speed and direction.  I must have a very controlled burn as I might
> end up in jail if I burn my neighbors property. So, I never burn
> without the correct weather conditions.  During the month when I'm
> planning to burn I keep up with the weather reports and am aware of
> the movements of all the continental fronts.  I don't want any
> shifts at mid-burn.  I want a whole day of good, safe weather.  
> These conditions occur about 5 times a winter.  Now my burn window
> decreases from one month to 5 days.  But since I have to go to work,
> I have to let some of those days go by.  It's tough to go to work
> when you need to say home and burn. Finally, the conditions all
> occur on a day off work and I go for it.
> 
> I do rotational burns on my property so there is always some cover
> available for any animals that lose their homes (or need to escape
> my dogs).  After a burn the birds start to work the site almost
> immediately. This is a good time for the birds because my property
> is under a migration route.  Also, burning is not just a winter
> activity.  All year I manage for the safety of the next burn by
> clearing and maintaining fire breaks. Also, my vision has changed. 
> When I look at the land I not only see the current vegetation, I
> also see fuel, its type and distribution.  Knowing your land is a
> joy and burning with the knowledge of the life within the land
> merges my mind with the land.  Is that the land ethic?       
> 
> ----------
> >From: "PrairieSource.com" <jef@prairiesource.com>
> >To: <prairie@mallorn.com>
> >Subject: Re: burn safety
> >Date: Mon, Apr 17, 2000, 11:51 AM
> >
> 
> >The key to fall burning is not to burn too much. Actually the key to
> >responsible burning when regarding habitat is to only burn a portion each
> >year and burn on a rotational basis. Three years seems to be a good
> >rotation, however your conditions and challenges will dicatate what your
> >burn rotation should be.
> >
> >Jef Hodges
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Joan Lane <jml@prairienet.org>
> >To: <prairie@mallorn.com>
> >Sent: Monday, April 17, 2000 9:41 AM
> >Subject: Re: burn safety
> >
> >
> >>
> >> A point about burns....we grew up with our praire burns..  As the praire
> >> grew and the fires got bigger and hotter, so grew our experience.
> >> Established praire fires are awesome things but remember that you have a
> >> new plot and it  will not   burn like that for several years.  These are
> >> good years to acquire  skills by helping out professionals with their
> >> burns.  A tool that I would really recommend geting is a fire flapper.
> >>
> >> Also....I have decided not to do fall burns because of the habitat that I
> >> destroy.  So many critters use the tall grasses over the winter months
> >> that I just can't bring myself to burn it till spring.  In the spring
> >after
> >> we burn, the hawks and owls are flying low over the site swooping up
> >goodies.
> >>
> >> Joan
> >> At 09:57 PM 4/12/00 -0400, you wrote:
> >> >James,
> >> >
> >> >Point well taken.  Thanks.
> >> >
> >> >Carmen
> >> >"Never underestimate the power of denial."  Ricky in American Beauty
> >> >---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> >To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
> >> >message text UNSUBSCRIBE PRAIRIE
> >>
> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >> To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
> >> message text UNSUBSCRIBE PRAIRIE
> >>
> >
> >---------------------------------------------------------------------
> >To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
> >message text UNSUBSCRIBE PRAIRIE
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> - To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with
> the message text UNSUBSCRIBE PRAIRIE
James C. Trager, Ph. D.
Shaw Arboretum
P.O. Box 38
Gray Summit MO 63039
PH# 636-451-3512
FAX 636-451-5583
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PRAIRIE
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index