Prescribed Burning Throughout the Year.
Most prescribed fire practitioners in the Southern Great Plains conduct burns during winter and early spring. The burning season has become commonplace because dead fuels like grasses and leaf litter burn easily. Firefighters conduct a large portion of prescribed burns close to spring green-up to improve forage quality.
Historically people burned the land during all seasons of the year. A short burn season complicates the successful achievement of land management goals. Land managers should conduct prescribed burns throughout the entire year to create more opportunities.
TOOLS YOU NEED FOR A SUCCESSFUL BURN
As part of the prescribed burn planning process, managers should secure the appropriate equipment. Following are some basic tools and equipment for conducting a prescribed burn. For more information about prescribed fire and other essential tools needed for a successful burn, please visit noble.org/fire.
POWER EQUIPMENT
All power equipment should be checked and serviced prior to a burn. Remember to have extra fuel and oil.
•Sprayers
•Water pump
•Chainsaw
•Blower
HAND EQUIPMENT
•Drip torch
•Drip torch fuel
•Ax
•Fire rake
•Fire swatter
•Shovel
•Wire-cutting pliers
Downsides of postponing burns
It is common for burns to be postponed to another year because a short burn season and weather limitations make it difficult to conduct burns in a timely manner. Postponement allows more brush encroachment on rangelands that could negatively impact wildlife habitat and grazing quantity. The seasonality of a prescribed burn depends on fuel type and the goals for the land. As for any prescribed burn, extending the burn season requires planning.
Growing season burns help with brush control
For burns conducted during summer and fall, grasslands and mixed shrublands burn better than woodlands.
The growth of last year’s grass and forbs is needed to carry a fire during the growing season. Planning ensures that grazing does not remove too much plant material allowing effective burns to be conducted. Fire usually burns best in wooded areas during winter because leaves carry the fire. The longer leaves remain on the ground after leaf-drop the more difficult they become to burn.
Carrying a fire through wooded areas during the growing season is harder than carrying it in December or January. Burns conducted during summer and fall have different impacts on the plant community than burns conducted during winter and spring. Burns during the growing season typically have a bigger impact on brush species. If brush control is a land management objective, consider burning during the growing season.
Diversity in burn timing promotes plant diversity
It also is beneficial to wildlife to have burned areas at different times of the year to increase plant diversity, which is imperative for good wildlife habitat. Diversity is one of the 6 soil health principles for regenerative ranching. Burning multiple times of the year creates a mosaic of various plant communities in different plant successional stages to benefit many wildlife species. Diversity in burn season also improves community dynamics, one of the ecosystem processes that is important for ecological health and resilience.
vegetation is green
Typically, weather conditions are most volatile during winter and early spring in the Southern Great Plains. Days with low humidity and high winds are not uncommon. In summer and fall, weather conditions tend to be more stable with lower wind speeds and higher humidity. Due to more consistent and safer weather conditions during summer and fall, some people prefer to burn outside the typical burn season. Burns during the growing season also tend to have fewer escapes than burns in the dormant season because green vegetation mixed with dead fuel slows down the fire.
Prescribed fire is an important ecological process for the Southern Great Plains. Fire adapts our plants and they require it regardless of the burn season. We should consider using fire at all times of the year to accomplish our land management goals. We shouldn’t limit ourselves to just a few months out of the year to burn.
Prescribed Burning Throughout the Year.