Prescribed Burning: Risks & Benefits from a Burn Boss’s Point of View
by David Carr

There has recently been a lot of scrutiny over prescribed burning and so I wanted to share information from my perspective.  My name is David Carr and I have been doing prescribed burns for nine years.  For 19 years before that I was a kid who grew up in the Sandhills and worked for 5 summers on a couple ranches.  I know both sides of this issue.  I have participated in about 200 burns without incident, burning over 16,000 acres by my estimate.  I have become certified in the NWCG system as a Prescribed Fire Burn Boss Type 2, Engine Boss, Incident Commander Type 4, Ignitions Specialist, and Firefighter Type 1.  This is to give you an idea of where I am coming from.  I would like to start by saying that I am proud of my fellow Nebraskans for their understanding and cooperation so far in my career.  I know that prescribed burning is somewhat foreign here in Nebraska and seems pretty dangerous.  I am surprised time and time again at people’s willingness to help us in little ways even though they are somewhat scared of what we are doing.

I feel that when it comes to risk, the folks need to be aware that risk levels are low when the fires are being done like a true “prescribed burn”.  A prescribed burn means having several things:
*A trained crew of at least 6 folks.
*At least 2 fire trucks or custom sprayers.
*A proper burn plan.
*A burn unit that has prepared, adequate boundaries.
*Burn Boss that is in 1^st person contact with the National Weather Service.

Trained burn bosses and trained crews who are dedicated to their jobs have been shown to be safe enough to pull off hundreds of burns in a row without problems. In reference to my own experience here in Nebraska, in all the burns I have done we have not had an escape.  I would like to add that all tools have a certain amount of danger.  This one is no different.  We have voltage lines, railroad crossings that kill, auto and plane crashes etc.  Nothing is totally safe.

Where I think the public needs to be more concerned are on the various “controlled burns” that are being done.  These are not prescribed burns, meaning quite a few of the details have not been specifically planned.  This lack of planning is the problem.  Controlled Burns typically are:  Pile Burns, 1 or 2 man burns, Unattended or un-extinguished burns.

Are prescribed burns necessary?  In some areas, no, and in some areas, yes. There are some areas where accumulations of trees cause fire concern.  Prescribed burning removes these fuels more economically than any other method.  Without occasional fires, some areas that have a tallgrass community on them are changed so drastically that the native grasses disappear.  The native wildlife goes with them.  We need to maintain these areas and fire is vital in that effort. I certainly don’t remember the dust bowl, but I read where they had to put any wooden handled tools inside because the insects were out of plants and would eat wooden handles.  It’s crucial to keep nature in balance if possible from my point of view.

You may hear or read that smoke causes a health hazard, and folks that is a wash.  All that particulate matter is going to be airborne someday whether or not it’s burned intentionally, because sooner or later a wildfire will catch the area before the wood is decomposed.  Also, this particulate matter is less than what it would have been historically.  Native Americans burned a lot more than we do these days.

In summation, I would say that implementing these fires is doable and increasing the scale is doable and should not cause a major public concern where best practices and dedicated burn bosses are involved. I think we need to get some good boundaries put in on the Platte River and do some more burning there to prevent nasty wind-whipped wildfires.  We need more understanding of fire’s benefits and risks so that more fires are implemented where necessary and so that unsafe projects are not permitted in the first place.

2005 Reeves Prescribed Burn

2006 Reeves Spring Results