Who knew that fire in a forest could be a good thing?
But that's only the case if it is properly managed.
And that takes someone who is certified and trained to light fires right.
Each burn of ours we have specific objectives that we're trying to reach.
And after we do our burn, we always come back out and
evaluate our burn to decide whether or not we did each our goals and our objectives.
And if we didn't, then we know how to tweak the weather parameters on
the next prescription on the next burn
so that we do meet our goals and objectives.
Is there any way that we could see a burn or a fire today?
Yeah, we're gonna do a burn today.
That's fantastic, I'm ready!
Well there's a few things you need to take care of before we get started.
First of all, just so you understand, us in the
fire profession do a lot of training so
that we understand exactly what it is
that we're doing, we understand how to
write prescriptions, which has to do with
where we're burning, what we're burning,
why we're burning it, our objectives, etc.
Things like safety issues and how are we
going to manage our fire if the fire does get out.
That's good to know.
And then after that, you get a cool outfit like this.
Yes, this is our PPE, or our personal protective equipment.
I've actually got some set out for you now.
And these clothes right here are made
out of Nomex which is a fire resistant clothing.
It's also very breathable so it helps us to not get too hot.
And of course we need a radio harness so that
we can keep in communication to make
sure that we're safe as we're out here on the burn.
I always need a good pair of gloves.
Leather is our glove of choice.
And of course we need a hardhat so we
make sure we protect our noggin.
Perfect! All right, I'm ready.
After you, let's go.
Is this what we're going to burn?
We're going to burn this unit right in here.
And the main reason why is
that the grasses are starting to
accumulate from the last two years of not being burnt.
And so it's starting to get too thick for a little bobwhite etc. to go through there.
The other thing that was really important to the
animals that we managed for is the ground cover.
And that ground cover is of grasses and the weeds.
And so if you get too much shade, these vegetation, they won't grow very well.
We need to top kill some of these volunteer pines.
That'll help open up the sun to get to the ground.
That's so interesting because to me it almost looks like a regular forest.
Looks like a very well managed forest. I would agree.
Well let's burn it!
I see some of the little baby trees are
still alive even with the fire.
Yeah, fires they've killed very little.
What they do is they with what we call top kill,
and it kills the part of the plant
that's above ground
but the roots are still intact and as
soon as it rains again all of these
grasses that are now black will sprout
out with fresh growth.
And that fresh growth is very high in nutrient--
nutritional value.
So herbivores like deer will come in here very quickly
after a burn and after it starts to resprout.
And those are the shoots that it wants to eat.
It is a vital part of the southeast ecosystem.
Prescribed burning and frequent fire is a must if we're
gonna maintain the biodiversity in the
plant life and the biodiversity in the animal life.
And it's so controlled.
It's only right where I set it.
You light the fires under the weather conditions that
we can handle and that we can manage and
makes fire much easier and you only get
the benefits instead of the negatives.
There you go. Your first lit prescribed fire.