On March 30 the Hot Springs, South Dakota Volunteer Fire Department conducted a prescribed fire along the Fall River to reduce the woody vegetation which could clog the flood control channel where the river passes through the city. We covered it then with several photos, but today I went back to see what it looked like. Below are photos taken during, just after, and six months after fire visited the river.
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Its really amazing to see what brush and grass can do to a water way. You might think ” aw, the water will flow right through that.” Nope. Its like throwing in check boards. Nice to see agencies working together.
Bill–To be truly effective in controlling woody species, a plan should be developed by the Corps and Hot Springs FD to burn the channel say every other year. Nice to see the Corps was receptive to the idea of using fire as a maintenance tool. I have mixed results working with them in the past–was pulling teeth to use firecrews with chainsaws and pile-n-burn techniquesto
Looks great… but doesn’t look “woody” even in the before photo. Were there substantial woody components in other portions of the burn?
from the three photos provided it appears that only the immediately after photo shows any improvement in the channels ability to move run-off.
am missin’ somethin’?
Mike, improving run off was not an objective of this burn. The channel is plenty deep. But preventing it from becoming a problem was. The Corps of Engineers requires that the city keep the channel clear so that it can handle high water.
When an objective of a prescribed fire is to reduce or prevent invasion by woody species, as in this project, whether it is in a river channel or a prairie, periodic burning can accomplish that objective. If you wait until the trees are too large to be killed in a fire, you will fail to meet that objective. It is likely that in this case there were small woody plants in the river channel that could not be seen in the photo. About 10 to 12 years ago, after not burning the channel for a long time, crews had to go in to the river area with chain saws and cut the trees.