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FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW
Fire Lines Since spring and summer bring on fire season across the Southeast, perhaps some reminders for the sake of The Bear would be in order. Winterburns often take place even as spring is budding, and as is often the case, a
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good day to burn is often the wrong day to burn. Early summer makes the forester itch to burn off a clearcut before it greens up, but like the spring unstable weather is common. Red-flag days are popping up all over the calendar, and a once calm day suddenly has turned into chaos. Maybe that is a picture of our lives at times, so here are some burning tips
that might help in life. Before you strike the match, before you begin the fire, it is important to know where and when the fire is going to end. Foresters and fire have a long history, one of love and hate. As long as the fire begins and ends where we want it to, we love it. If it ends or begins where we don’t want it to, we hate
AUGUST 2022 l Southern Loggin’ Times
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it. Thus, with every lighting of the match, with every flick of the Bic, a small knot is presAntill ent in the stomach of the forester—a knot that says, “I hope this fire ends where it is supposed to.” The main tool to accomplish this is a mythical mainstay of the industry, known as the fire line. The fire line in theory is a clear line of dirt which surrounds the fire; and since most dirt does not burn, the fire will stop when it hits this barrier of dirt. Surround the area you want to burn with a line of cleared dirt and your fire will stop where it is supposed to stop…Unless! The wind blows it across the fire line…or a burning piece of brush or small tree falls across the line…or in the process of making the fire line a small patch of intense fuel is created alongside the fire line, and it causes embers to cross to the other side…or the soil itself is organic and it burns by itself…or if the line was put in ahead of the day the actual fire is lit, giving the line time to get “dirty.” Since the line is often constructed in advance, it only takes a little breeze, or maybe a storm to begin to clutter the line. Leaves will fall and form a patchwork of burnable material, maybe a branch or two, often creating a bridge across the fire line, thus connecting the area we want to burn and the area we do not want to burn. When this happens, rest assured, the fire will find it if you do not find it first. The one aspect of the burning
