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What is prescribed Burning?
Let's start by stating a commonly
known fact among personnel of forestry, parks, game,
fisheries and many other agencies both governmental
and nongovernmental; "FIRE IS NOT ALWAYS A BAD
THING". Quite to the contrary, fire is the
forest's fountain of youth. Generally, fire
destroys the old to make way for the new and while
in so doing, it fertilizes the land for new growth.
As a matter of fact, some tree and plant species
need fire to reproduce such as the Ponderosa Pine
whose cones will only open to spread its seeds under
the heat of fire.
For over a century, we have
been waging an all out war against wildfire. We
have invested a great deal of time, energy, and
especially money into better training and technology
in the fight against wildfire, and, we have been
successful. In fact, we have been so
successful at squelching wildfires that we have
created a new problem, one that is growing like
wildfire (pun intended).
As a fire burns through the
forest, it removes the old leaf pack, fallen tree
limbs, thick understory, etc. that clutters the
forest floor. This is what we refer to as fuel
load. The heavier the fuel load, the more
intense, dangerous, and difficult to control a fire
will be. A fire burning in a heavy fuel load
may often present dangerous challenges to the
firefighter and to the public in general. One
example of this could be seen during the Oakland
Hills Fire in 1991. Decades of fire
suppression left the hillsides around Oakland
California primed with a massive amount of tree
litter just waiting for the right conditions and for
a spark. On October 20, 1991 it found that
spark and when it was finally over some 25 people
were killed and thousands of homes and businesses
destroyed. As a firebrand (sparks cast skyward
by winds created by an intensely burning fire which
will fall back to earth sometimes miles from the
parent fire) storm swept down the streets of Oakland
and Berkeley, more wildfires were ignited as well as
fires in homes, businesses, cars, etc. Pretty
much anything that could burn, did and firefighting
resources were spread so thin, there was little or
nothing they could do to stop it.
People in many parts of the
Weiser Forest District will certainly remember the
heavy tree damage from the January, 2005 Ice Storms.
Think of all the tree limbs that lay scattered
throughout our forests in the aftermath of these
storms. Now understand, fire could not have
prevented the ice storms or for that matter the
clutter of tree litter that carpeted the woods
following these storms. Fire would, however,
burn up this mess. Unfortunately, an
uncontrolled wildfire burning through this type of
material may well result in a firebrand storm like
that seen in Oakland. If burned in a
controlled manner as in prescribed burning, however, it
could be dealt with safely
Prescribed Burning is a way of
using fire in a carefully engineered and controlled
manner to do the job that wildfire does naturally,
while protecting lives and property in the process.
Prescribed burning has great advantages over wildfire,
because it is planned and optimized to get maximum
benefit with the least amount of fire and the entire
project is well orchestrated and supervised by
specially trained individuals with many years of
wildland fire experience to maximize safety to both
the personnel involved and the general public.
So, we know that burning out a
heavy understory can reduce hazards should a
wildfire hit the same area in the future, but what
other benefits and risks are there with prescribed
burning? Burning out the thick understory,
will also open the forest floor to increased
sunlight. This helps larger hardier tree
species, such as oaks, to regenerate and reproduce
more efficiently. The ash left behind by the
fire contains key nutrients which the forest can
only get through these means. Also, as
previously mentioned, certain tree and plant species
can only reproduce after a fire.
As for the risks, there is one
primary risk, that being the chance for a prescribed
burn to break out and become a major wildfire.
This risk is mitigated by ensuring that only
properly trained individuals are in charge of a
prescribed burn. You hear it all the time;
"don't try this at home." Well, don't.
Just as the term implies, prescribed burns are
exactly that, prescribed. Just like only a MD,
DO, PA, or CRNP can prescribe medications, only
those individuals with the appropriate experience
and training may, or for that matter should, conduct
such an operation. A closer analogy in fact
would be that of a surgeon performing surgery,
because prescribed burn operations need to be
planned and conducted with surgical precision in
order to prevent loss of lives and property. A
properly planned and orchestrated prescribed burn
conducted by properly trained personnel can,
however, have far reaching benefits to the forest
and the overall environment over both the short and
long term.
For more Information about
Prescribed Burning check out these links.
PA House Bill
262
Oak Regeneration Brief
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