Letters from the Inbox

Q&A

Dear Longleaf Alliance,

I have 68 acres of 19-year-old longleaf pine in Aiken County, South Carolina. My family and I got a couple of good burns in early on, but now it’s been about five years since the last fire. What can I say—life gets in the way! Now brushy vegetation, and volunteer loblolly, has grown in with a force. The stand is kind of a mess. We are proud to burn our own land but don’t quite know how to approach it again. We love our woods and want to enjoy them again. What can we do now?

Feeling lost in the woods, Windsor, SC

Dear Lost in the Woods

Your woods are not lost, and neither are you! Your situation is a common one that landowners (and land managers alike) find themselves in when circumstances get in the way of their management priorities. With some planning, you and your family can be quite successful with getting back to burning your woods.

Since you noted the buildup of fuels in your stand, we’d suggest easing back into it with a dormant-season burn, when the temperatures are cool to cold, and winds and dispersion levels are typically more conducive to prescribed fire, and often more dependable. That is not to say that you can’t successfully pull off a burn in the spring and summer. But we’d rather see you take advantage of a good burn day in January than hold out for one that may not come later in the year.

Dust off your burn plan and think about the specific objectives you want to achieve, both immediately and longerterm. You’ll want to review your weather parameters that should be met on burn day. Relative humidities in the winter are often low, especially following fronts, so you’ll want to look for a day with predicted ranges from 25-40% while anticipating a dip into lower values is always possible. Look for a day with a steady wind from a reliable direction. And if you can, time it for after the first frost; that will provide you with frost-cured grasses to carry the fire at the ground level.

Since your longleaf are older and have developed their thick, insulating bark, feel free to use backing fires in addition to strip-head fires at your own pace to move fire across the unit.

Make sure to take stock of your burn equipment and gear—does anything need service or replacement? Maybe there is a fellow landowner with items you can borrow. Even better, are there folks who can help you and your family on the burn? And don’t forget to keep your local Forestry Commission in the loop.

Happy planning! And keep us posted!

The Longleaf Alliance Q. Dear Longleaf Alliance, I’m planning on restoring fire to a longleaf pine stand on my property that hasn’t been burned in 24 years. I’ve been told that I need to be careful about reintroducing fire because I could burn the stand too hot and kill the tree’s roots. Why can’t I just rake around the trees like they do around red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) nest trees? Can you give me some guidance?

Talbot County, Georgia Tree Farmer A. Dear Talbot County, The advice you have been given is correct. You have to be careful when reintroducing fire into any long- unburned pine forest, even longleaf. Over time, pine needles and leaves build up and start decomposing into duff-semi-decomposed leaf litter. This eventually turns into humus. Duff and humus are high in organic matter and hold moisture. Over time, tree feeder roots grow up into this layer, looking for moisture and nutrients. These accumulations can get quite deep, especially around large, mature pines. If the accumulation isn’t reduced by periodic burning, it will fuel extremely hot and smoldering fires when burning is reintroduced, killing the tree’s feeder roots. The key to burning under these conditions of accumulated litter and duff is to always burn when the duff layer is moist and gradually reduce it with multiple burns spread out over a period of years rather than burn down to mineral soil in one burn. Your question about raking around the trees is a good one. Yes, when burning stands that have red-cockaded woodpeckers, land managers sometimes rake around the trees. However, the difference is that’s to prevent them from catching fire from the sap that typically runs down the trees from the nest cavities. You can get away with raking around the trees in frequently burned pine stands because the duff layer has been eliminated due to frequent fire. However, if you rake around trees with high levels of litter accumulations, you’ll damage the feeder roots of those trees, just as you would with a smoldering duff fire. There are no shortcuts reintroducing fire into long unburned pine stands. Patience and persistence are the keys to success. For additional information, please contact The Longleaf Alliance and request a copy of our brochure: Restoration of

Fire to Long-Unburned Longleaf Pine Forests.

Best of luck with your burning efforts,

The Longleaf Alliance