Burning Desire

It has been well established over the last fifty years that fire suppression in oak-hickory forests has been causing a shortage of oak reproduction. I have seen this firsthand, having worked both in areas with excessive wildfires, and forests with no fires. Timber that burns reproduces to the species that humans and wildlife need to live their lives. The problem with prescribed burning that is not addressed very well, is that prescribed burns can damage or kill timber just as well as a wildfire. If you are trying to make money with your timber, the use of fire to make the trees reproduce has the potential to severely cut into the quality of your timber, and your income. The black oak above was severely burned in a prescribed fire.

Dr. John Groninger of Southern Illinois University is seen here checking out a black oak that was killed in a prescribed fire in a research area. Note that a red oak of similar size is unscathed just a short distance away.

This shagbark hickory died in a prescribed fire, and even though hickories are low in monetary value, they are important providers of food and homes for wildlife.

What is a timber grower to do? Here is the solution I recommend if it is time to burn your woods in order for it to regenerate. You have to protect your trees within the burn area. One of my landowners put in ten man-days on his high quality white oak forest preparing it for its first prescribed burn. He is on track to have the final sale of this stand in about fifteen years, and it is time to make new oaks start up in the understory. Most of the preparation was done with a leaf blower and a rake to clean fuel away from trees which will ultimately be harvested.

He even cleaned around his hickories if they appeared to be merchantable. The little sedges growing at the foot of this tree are a fire frequency indicator. They will grow all over an upland timber that has a fire once in a while, but in a woods that is not burned, you will see them only around the bases of trees.

One day was spent chainsawing and moving heavy fuels away from his trees. This is a good idea for every forest owner as a protection against wildfire damage.

We lit his thirty acres today, after several good drying days, and the advance preparation made it a low stress burn.

Here the landowner is stringing fire with a drip torch.

The protected trees had more than enough clean space around them, and we had a wide fire line encircling the thirty acre woods.

He made his fire line extra wide around his cabin.

After the downwind sides were burned in a safe distance, we lit some head fires to run with the wind, and speed up the process.

This burn also did some good fuel reduction for us, so the next fire will be much easier to prepare.

We patrolled the line after the fire, mopping up hot spots like this stump,

which was demolished and scattered using a Council rake. Mopping up after the fire is just as important as the advance preparation. You don't want your fire scattering sparks across the line to your neighbors.

This was the first of a series of burns we will do in this timber over the next dozen years. We suffered almost no collateral damage to the trees, and this is a burn I can use as a model to show other forest owners.