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CPNRD Concludes RX Burn Spring
Season
The
Central Platte Natural Resources District has recently concluded its spring
prescribed burns for 2009. The
accomplishment for this year was 17 prescribed fires totaling 965 acres burned
safely. The burns were conducted in
Buffalo, Dawson, Hall, Merrick, Howard, Sherman, Polk, and Platte counties in
Nebraska.
Central Platte NRD Prescribed burn program coordinator David Carr said:
“Utilizing these burns has helped the landowners in our district to kill
thousands of unwanted cedar trees in a very fast and cost effective manner.
These burns have also removed tons of hazardous woody material from these
pastures and fields ahead of this summer’s fire season.
That should help slow down wildfires if lighting should strike in the
area.”
Since the inception of the Central Platte NRD burn program in 2005, the burn
crew has completed 92 burns without incident.
Carr attributes this fact to the high level of training, equipment and
preparation that is put into each project. “Our
crew became state certified wildland firefighters in 2005,” Carr said.
Money
is available through NRCS and Pheasants Forever programs to pay for much of the
burning and also to help defray the cost of letting pastures sit idle in
preparation for a burn. “Burning when the cedar trees are smaller saves a
landowner tens of thousands of dollars when compared to removing older mature
trees using equipment not to mention the lost profit from the reduced grazing
capacity the cedars cause. “Many of the landowners I talk to don’t want to
face that up front cost of letting a pasture sit idle and then paying for a
burn, but the result will more than pay for itself,” Carr said.
This spring saw dry conditions and at least one major wildfire in our area.
Controlled burns have often been confused with prescribed burns in our
area. The differences between
a controlled burn and a prescribed burn are very significant.
Prescribed burns always involve the proper notifications, plans and
permits, as well as a completely prepared perimeter.
Prescribed burns also involve crews of 6-12 folks who are properly
equipped and trained. “Controlled
burns including trash burns and pile burns are not prescribed burns and muddling
the issue is counter productive to the Nebraska producer,” Carr added.
Currently, the Central Platte NRD is accepting applications for fall 2009 and
spring 2010 burn projects. If any
one is interested in having a field burned safely, they should contact the NRD
at (308) 385-6282. The boundary
preparation is best done the fall before the fire so the sooner the better.
Insurance
Coverage for Prescribed
Fires
Atlantic Specialty Lines has announced the creation
of a new Commercial General Liability policy for specialty contractors
involved with prescribed fires and grassland burning. Prescribed fire is a land
management tool designed to control the natural buildup of “forest and
grassland fuels.”
This
product is the culmination of nearly 18 months of research into a unique market
segment that is grossly underserved by the property casualty industry. “There
are virtually no carriers in the U.S. today offering commercial liability
coverage for this class of business,” says Doug Rigdon, partner in Atlantic
Specialty Lines Midwest. Read
more...
Prescribed
Fires in the Media
(In
response to article/picture on NTV's Community Correspondence)
Prescribed
burning is necessary in our area for several reasons and it is widely
misunderstood by those who have no prescribed fire experience. First, prescribed
burns are the most cost effective cedar and brush management tool that we have.
Each burn that is conducted in the Spring helps to control fire danger in that
area during the summer by removing dead material. This area is under a huge
threat of being overrun by a host of invasive species that fire controls,
including eastern red cedar which if left unchecked would take over 4682 acres
annually in the Central Platte NRD area. Additionally prescribed fires are the
only way to preserve the native tall grasses that once covered the state. Now we
have only 2% of these areas remaining. What kind of state do we want to pass on
to our children? If we want to pass on a state where brushy areas and cedar
trees are kept under control and where tall grass prairies can still be seen,
then we need to understand prescribed burning and permit it's use, giving the
benefit of the doubt to the professional burn bosses who have been doing this
for a number of years. These burn bosses are often current or former fire
fighters themselves.
The
issue becomes muddled when all types of burns are lumped together and called
"prescribed burning." Simple pile burns, trash burns, and camp fires
are not prescribed burns. A more careful examination of these recent escaped
wildfires will yield that none of them were caused by an escaped prescribed
burn. In fact in our area there are 6 main burn crews and you will find that
over the last five years though tens of thousands of acres have been burned a
fire department was needed only once as a precaution.
Prescribed
burns are conducted by an experienced burn boss and a trained and experienced
crew of 8-20 individuals. The boundaries of the burn area are carefully prepared
if existing fire breaks are not present. A burn plan and map specifies the
weather conditions and technique. The burn boss gets a permit from the local
fire chief for the fire. Weather conditions have to be mild for the burn to take
place and the National Weather Service issue's a spot weather forecast for the
specific burn site. Weather is also monitored on site. A previous author asked
of the burn yesterday, "Is it too soon?" A check of the weather
conditions for yesterday in that area yields that it was a good day for burning,
wherever trees were not present.
In
addition to the weather burn bosses should check: Adjective Fire Danger Rating,
1000 hour dead fuel moistures, Palmer Drought, and the Rangeland Fire Danger
rating. All these things can be found at either the Wildland Fire Assesment
System website or the National Weather Service webpage. I think to remedy these
pile burn disasters, it’s important to either burn them when snow or rain
covers the ground, and to get the pile completely extinguished with water at
some point when everything is burned out. Too many piles are assumed out because
they have burned down. Extreme winds even days down the road can rekindle those
ashes if any heat remains. I would
invite anyone interested in learning more to contact the Central Platte NRD for
training or to view a prescribed burn.
Hot Dates
– Workshops & Conferences
The 2009 schedule is available online at http://www.fws.gov/fire/pftc/.
Courses include 21-day sessions for RXB2, FIRB, ENGB, FEMO, and FOBS. If you or
your partners are in need of experience to jump-start a program you may wish to
consider applying. There are a total of 102 openings between January and April;
in addition, the Conservancy will host a Spanish-language module from the LAC
FLN in March. Applications are due by October 15.
There will also be a week-long Agency Administrator's Workshop at the end of
March. It will focus on line officers/agency administrators who have
oversight for fire programs. Attendees will spend time with local
administrators discussing the ins and outs of administering a prescribed fire
program and will receive experiential learning on the fireline. This might
be an effective medium for partners, as well as a state directors or upper level
conservation operations staff. For more information, contact Greg
Seamon.
June
Centennial FLN Northern Rockies Aspen
Conference (Butte, MT)
This workshop was originally scheduled for October '08 & has been
rescheduled for June 23-25, 2009.
Contact: Nathan Korb (nkorb@tnc.org)
Publications of Interest
Joint
Fire Science Program
This
website has publications based on research projects, updated & very useful
information. Check
it out!
Prescribed
Burning in Light to Moderate stands of Native Nebraska Forest
The
question arises when moving from grassland to forests, what is a safe
prescription for burning in trees? Is
it different from burning in the grasslands?
The answer relates to tree mortality and safety.
There really are two main issues... Click
here for article.
Lessons
learned from RX study: Escapes and Near Misses Click
Here
The
Colorado Forest Restoration Institute recently completed a report entitled
“Historical and Modern Disturbance Regimes, Stand Structures, and Landscape
Dynamics in Piñon-Juniper Vegetation of the Western
U.S.” The publication, supported in part by the Southwest
Fire Learning Network and Anne Bradley (TNC, New Mexico), can
be found at http://www.cfri.colostate.edu/docs/PJSynthesis.pdf.
Jim
Cox and Brent Widener (Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy)
have published a report entitled “Lightning Season Burning: Friend or Foe
of Breeding Birds?” that reviews recent research on the effect
of the timing of fire in southern pine forests on the birds that breed there; species
considered include bobwhite, wild turkey, red-cockaded woodpecker, brown-headed
nuthatch and Bachman’s and Henslow’s sparrow. The publication can be
found on the ConserveOnline Fire Learning Network workspace or at http://www.talltimbers.org/images/pubs/FireBreedingBirdsBooklet-small.pdf.
The
Forest Guild’s fall issue of “forest WISDOM” is devoted to the challenges
presented by the removal and use of woody biomass
to sustain long-term forest ecosystem integrity. It includes articles
on the appropriate scale of projects, the effect of rising oil prices on woody
biomass energy costs, and the export of wood pellets to Europe (http://www.forestguild.org/publications/forest_wisdom/Wisdom11.pdf).
An index to other publications can be found at http://www.forestguild.org/Publications.html#RP.
Recommended Resources
Rocky Mountain Research Station has recently published a review of the
relationship between non-native invasive plants and
wildland fire. To download
the 368-page volume, go to http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr042_6.html.
Another
volume in the series worth looking at is volume 2, Effects of Fire on Flora;
it's from 2000, but is still a great primer for new folks and has many
important references. Available at http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr042_2.html.
Also check out Fire Effects Information System (FEIS), a database of
the ecology and biology of individual species and their relationship with fire,
at http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/.
Oklahoma State University publication regarding
Best Management Practices for Eastern Red Cedar including helpful tips on
burning cedar trees & cutting. http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-2550/NREM-2876web.pdf
US Fish and Wildlife Service Remote Automated
Weather Station located at Hastings, Nebraska, which should help give good fire
danger information for south central Nebraska. The information it provides can
be seen at the Wildland Fire Assessment System web page where you can look up Fire
Danger, and Dead or Live Fuel Moisture levels. They are color coded
to help determine safe days to burn. http://www.wfas.net
Archive-
Articles
Eastern
Redcedar Management on Grasslands in Nebraska READ ON...
Farmers Use Caution READ ON...
Fire Council Issues Reminder of Safer Burn Practices READ ON...
Fire: Myths & Facts READ
ON...
 
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