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By Jacob Quigley
Prescribed burning in January? This is not something I am accustomed to. I’m more likely to be shoveling snow at home in western Montana.
During the University of Montana-Missoula’s winter break, seven students from the College of Forestry and Conservation, including me, set out for Baxley, Georgia, to participate in a prescribed fire practicum.
Now in its second year, the class and two faculty were again invited to help The Nature Conservancy do prescribed burning for ecological restoration of longleaf pine forests.
In the Woods
We stayed at Moody Forest Natural Area and conducted burns there, at the Conservancy’s Broxton Rocks Preserve, and at Crooked River State Park, burning about 1,200 acres in eight days.
Chuck Martin, the Moody Forest manager, and Matt Snider, the acting fire management officer for the Conservancy's Georgia and Alabama programs, introduced us to the longleaf pine wiregrass ecosystem, which I had only read about prior to our trip.
One of the most unique things about longleaf pine—besides being completely fire dependant—is that the seedlings look just like a bunchgrass.
When burned, the longleaf goes into what is called a “rocket stage,” where it grows rapidly to out-compete other types of vegetation. A sapling could be eight to 10 feet tall and still be absent of branches; in this stage the pine resembles a miniature palm tree.
The Forest’s Past and Future
On our first day in the field we set out to experience some of Moody Forest’s examples of intact longleaf pine habitat and found ourselves in the middle of some rare red-cockaded woodpecker nesting sites. Remarkably, we also spotted a six-foot long eastern indigo snake slithering across an open sandy area.
Erick Brown, land steward, and Malcolm Hodges, a conservation ecologist, reviewed the Conservancy’s restoration objectives, which are very particular for the old-growth longleaf pine. The majority of these trees were used for turpentine production, a practice I had never seen before. Remnants of the old industry— scattered clay pots for turpentine collection and large vertical scars on the trees—were everywhere.
These scarred trees were the center of attention on many of our burns because, unlike trees with their bark still intact, the turpentine trees were coated in a very flammable layer of sap. The tremendous heat put an excessive amount of stress on the tree as it burned. If exposed to this heat for too long, the tree would ultimately die.
In most instances our goal was to let the turpentine trees catch fire, and when it was cool enough to enter the stand, we put out those trees using backpack water pumps. In a few years when the stand is burned again, less time will be needed to ensure the longevity of all the old-growth longleaf pines.
Most of these highly sensitive areas were burned in small blocks of three to 10 acres to ensure proper monitoring. In other types of forest systems, our goal was to establish the burning cycle that needs to occur every two years. These were the days that we really got to “put the coals to it”! In some instances we burned up to 400 acres in a day and produced excellent fire behavior, a result of cooperative winds, sun and low relative humidity.
Lessons to Remember
This experience was far different from the fall prescribed burning I do in the Northern Rocky Mountains, as the majority of that burning is done in logging units to remove slash. I had never been a part of such an in-depth ecological restoration before, and the best part about it was we were using prescribed fire at every step.
Working with The Nature Conservancy, my classmates and I from the University of Montana witnessed new management objectives on the ground. This class was an excellent opportunity for us to gain experience in leadership roles, burn in different fuel types and do our own prescribed fire implementation and planning.
Jacob Quigley is a senior at the University of Montana at Missoula, majoring in forestry and forest management.
Nature picture credits Photos © National Center for Landscape Fire Analysis
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