The Nature Conservancy in Georgia - Postcard From the Field

Postcard icon Joining the Prescribed Fire Team
by Jeff Spratt

Help us protect places from too much, too little or the wrong
kind of fire.

Jeff Spratt, biologist
Nature Conservancy biologist Jeff Spratt

Prescribed Fire in Georgia
Historically, Native Americans, farmers and Mother Nature herself – in the form of lightning strikes – burned the land to keep it fertile and healthy.

However, today the role of fire in many fire-adapted ecosystems, such as the longleaf pine forest, is drastically out of balance, threatening the loss of valuable forest land and plant and animal life.

Prescribed burns are vital to the successful conservation of Southeast lands and continue to be an essential tool to restoring and managing lands in Georgia.

• During the 2007 burn season, the Conservancy helped to apply prescribed fire to 35,216 acres of private and public land in Georgia.

• Working with state and federal partners, Conservancy staff in Georgia helped train 38 basic level firefighters and provided advance training for 25 firefighters in 2007.

• In Georgia, 13 Conservancy staff members are qualified firefighters, many with advanced training.

Learn more about the role of prescribed fire in conservation.

During my two years with The Nature Conservancy, a number of staff have asked when I was going to help with a prescribed burn. Due to strict training guidelines set forth by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, becoming a member of a prescribed burning crew is easier said then done.

So this past fall I started the process to qualify as a wildland firefighter. The first step was passing a week-long basic wildland firefighter course – a standardized training of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group.

The Conservancy and the Non-game Conservation Section of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources coordinated this course at General Coffee State Park. The training included fireline techniques, safety, prescribed burning and the pack test for physical fitness.

After successfully completing the course with 37 other participants, I had to wait for a chance to apply the knowledge and techniques we learned.

Fire on the Ground
Soon enough, Erick Brown, a land steward with the Conservancy’s Georgia program, called to ask if I could help with a burn at Broxton Rocks Preserve the next day. I quickly gathered my equipment and rearranged my schedule.

Waking the next day like a kid on Christmas morning, I hurried out the door before the sun to meet the rest of the crew for our assignments. We were divided into two squads and assigned equipment, maps and responsibilities. We were instructed to set a low intensity fire intended to reduce fuel loads in the 100-acre area. After nearly 20 years without any fire on this land, the burn would prepare the area for safer and more productive future burns.

My squad included Matt Snider, fire manager for the Conservancy’s Georgia and Alabama programs, and Jennifer Rich, an intern and a fellow fire school graduate. Ensuring the safest possible conditions, we set test fires, monitored the fire behavior and checked the weather. Everything was good. After a short discussion, Erick, our burn boss, declared the fire a go.

Using drip torches, we set fire along the fire breaks from the ignition site. The work was slow, but Jennifer and I were able to learn a number of things about fire that we did not learn in class. The squad leaders showed us techniques for setting fire, black lining and mopping up. The day’s burn was fairly uneventful, which is a good thing.

After six hours of work, the squads re-grouped at the command post and watched as the different areas of the land ignited. The objective of a low intensity fire was met, another sign of a good day’s burn.

Ecologist Malcolm Hodges and I finished mopping up the perimeter of the burn, making sure the remains of the prescribed fire did not move beyond the burn unit. As night began to fall, wisps of smoked curled from charred logs and white ashen palmetto.

Exhausted from a day of intense physical activity, I headed back to my vehicle looking forward to the next time. I can already smell the smoke.

Jeff Spratt is a biologist based in the Conservancy’s Southeast Georgia Conservation Office in Darien. He can be reached at jspratt@tnc.org.