Tag: prescribed fire

Everglades National Park to burn 31,000 acres

File photo. Everglades National Park, Coastal Prairie prescribed fire, May, 2011. NPS photo by Jennifer Brown

Today and tomorrow Everglades National Park in south Florida expects to burn 31,000 acres in one project. The prescribed fire will be part of their continuing program control exotic species and reduce fuel in the area south of U.S. 41, east of the Shark Valley park entrance.

Equipment to be used on the “River of Grass Northeast” project will include three engines, two helicopters, a single-engine air tanker, and one airboat.

At 2:00 p.m. ET we talked with the park’s information officer, Linda Friar, who said the prescribed fire started at 11:00 a.m. ET and so far was going well. We will post an update to this article later today or tomorrow as the burn progresses.

From the photo below, it appears that personnel flying over the Everglades National Park’s Coastal Prairie Prescribed Fire in May, 2011 were a little casual in their choice of attire. In most government-operated helicopters working on a fire, a helmet and fire resistant clothing would be required. More National Park Service photos from that prescribed fire are on the park’s flickr page. UPDATE: As you can see in the comments below this article, we heard from Rick Anderson, the Fire Management Officer for Everglades National Park, who said:

That photo is Huw Cordry of Wild Horizons LTD, you may know his work from the “Planet Earth” series filming a fire on our coastal prairies. This is not a NPS mission and the ship is private.. Thanks for your comments on aviation safety. Everglades Fire and Aviation flies around 500 missions a year with an excellent safety record. We seek safety in everything we do.

Prescribed fire in Western Australia escapes, burns dozens of homes

A prescribed fire in Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park in Western Australia escaped on November 23 and has destroyed or heavily damaged 19 to 30 homes in the Prevelly area. Pushed by strong winds, the fire has burned at least 4,900 acres.

Fifty-five people that had refused to be evacuated later had to take refuge from the fire on a Prevelly beach. They were rescued by jet ski and ferried to a waiting search and rescue boat offshore. From there they were taken to nearby Gracetown and then bused to an emergency welfare center in Margaret River.

Australia escaped prescribed fire prescribed fire Western Australia

City employee in Massachusetts burned during prescribed fire

For at least the last 42 years, the Stoughton, Massachusetts (map) Department of Public Works had burned the brush at Mead’s Meadow to prepare the area around the pond for ice skating season. There had been no major problems until Monday, when an unexpected wind shift pushed the fire toward DPW employee Steve Lewandowski. He tried to run, but he got stuck in mud. John Batchelder, Superintendent of the DPW, said Lewandowski was able to bend over and get his face in the mud and water while the flames burned across his body.

Lewandowski was admitted to the Burn Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital Monday evening. Later the hospital listed him in good condition. His girlfriend said he has burns on his neck, and back, and his face is reddened.

No one from the Fire Department was present during the prescribed fire. A local resident called 911 when she heard a man at the project site screaming repeatedly, and saw that the flames were higher than she usually saw when the DPW burned the meadow. Police and fire units responded and helped Lewandowski walk out of the burn area to a ground ambulance.

According to an article at the Taunton Gazette, Batchelder said the DPW employees responsible for starting and controlling the fire have no training to do so. Fire Chief Mark Dolloff said he will investigate the incident.

prescribed fire

Smoke from Black Hills prescribed fire photographed by satellite

Judging by the smoke I can see east of Hot Springs, South Dakota, and by looking at the satellite photo above, the Lemmings prescribed fire on the Mystic District of the Black Hills National Forest appears to be burning quite well. It can be seen on the right side of the photo, in the southwest corner of South Dakota.

HERE is a link to a Google map showing the exact location. On that map, you can see that the prescribed fire is just north of the Jasper fire (shown as brown or red) which burned 83,000 acres in the Black Hills National Forest and around Jewel Cave National Monument August 24, 2000. Prescribed fires conducted in Jewel Cave NM prior to 2000 caused the crowning Jasper fire to drop to the ground and burn slowly through the Monument. The only structure that burned at Jewel Cave was an old unused outhouse that firefighters forgot about. A creeping fire burned up to it and consumed it during mopup activities the day after the fire burned through the park. But management was probably happy to be rid of it since it may have been historic, and would have had to be protected and maintained for eons.

The USFS describes the Lemming prescribed fire:

The Mystic Ranger District will begin the Lemming prescribed burn, weather permitting, on September 30th and continue through the weekend. Crews aim to burn 1777 acres in the Lemming Draw area, 11 miles west of Hill City. Smoke will be visible from Hill City and many other locations, and can linger for several days after ignition has been completed. Forest Service crews will secure, patrol, and monitor control lines for as long as needed. Lemming Draw lies near the northern end of the Jasper Fire area; substantial surface fuels are present in the area as a result of the 2000 wildfire. The prescribed burn will aim to reduce the surface fuels by burning them under moderate conditions protecting existing pine seedlings and saplings, soils, and water quality.

prescribed fire

American Elk prescribed fire, six months later

When Wind Cave National Park in southwest South Dakota conducted their American Elk prescribed fire in October, 2010 I dropped by to take some photos on the first and second days of the two-day project. On May 8, 2011 I visited the site again to see what it looked like six months later and took some additional photos. In two cases I attempted to duplicate photos taken earlier.

American Elk prescribed fire, Oct. 21, 2010

American Elk prescribed fire, May 8, 2011

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Prescribed fire on the Mark Twain National Forest

Here is an interesting video about the use of aerial ignition on a prescribed fire on the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri.

helicopter prescribed fire

Burning along the Fall River

Most every year the Volunteer Fire Department in Hot Springs, South Dakota, burns the brush and small trees along the channel of the Fall River in order to keep the waterway clear for flood control. Today they began their annual burning. The weather conditions as measured at the weather station at the Hot Springs Municipal Airport was 43 degrees, with a relative humidity of 93%. And there was occasional drizzling rain.

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Black lining machine used in Nebraska

Note: scroll down to see an update to this article.

Wildfire Today first wrote about the Blacklining Machine in January, 2008 when it was being tested by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in South Dakota. A month later they approved it to be used on prescribed fires.

The device, pulled behind a tractor over a grassy prairie, uses propane burners under a metal structure to burn a five-foot wide black line, an area of burned vegetation, on the edge of a planned prescribed fire. Water spray nozzles, 16 of them, wet down the edges as the unit moves forward at about one mile an hour. In association with an adjacent mowed line, this can serve as a barrier to the prescribed fire spreading beyond the planned perimeter.

On Thursday the USF&WS demonstrated it at the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge in northern Nebraska. The Norfolk Daily News covered the event, but they got a little confused about the number and placement of the water nozzles and propane burners.

I’ve never seen one in action, but it may put in black line more quickly, with fewer people and with less risk of escape than conventional methods. It no doubt works best on an area with gentle terrain, grass fuels, and few rocks. But it’s probably fun to play with.

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UPDATE March 27, 2011

It occurs to me from reading the comments that some people are not familiar with the concept of blacklining a prescribed fire prior to the main ignition of the project. Depending on the tactics and the wind direction, the process of igniting along the perimeter can be a rather slow and tedious process until you get 5 to 30 feet of burned area, or black, adjacent to the perimeter. If the project is small and you have plenty of time and resources this may not be an issue. But if your project is large and you would like to minimize the number of operational periods devoted to igniting it, blacklining days or weeks before the burn can save you a lot of time. And you can have a broader prescription for blacklining than the main burn, making it possible to black line on days that would not be suitable for the larger project.

Dillon Prescribed fire Blacklining 10-10-2002 — Blacklining the Dillon Prescribed Fire, Badlands National Park, Oct. 10, 2002. Photo by Bill Gabbert

The Dillon Prescribed Fire shown above, was 3,132 acres. By blacklining the perimeter in advance, we were able to ignite the entire project in one day, while reducing the chances of an escape.

Blacklining can be especially useful prior to aerial ignition, as was the case on the Dillon project above. In some areas access on the Dillon was very difficult due to badlands. In those areas, instead of using engines and a water tender for support during blacklining, we used ATV’s with water tanks.

Thanks Judy

Photo by Bill G prescribed fire

USFS in trouble for burning creosote-laden railroad ties

Railroad tie fire — Photo: Arizona Daily Sun

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is investigating an incident on the Kaibab National Forest in which thousands of creosote-treated railroad ties were burned.

From the Arizona Daily Sun:

U.S. Forest Service employees conducting a prescribed fire at the end of February also set an estimated thousands of chemically treated railroad ties ablaze southwest of Tusayan.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is investigating the fire, as the Kaibab National Forest would have needed special permission to dispose of the creosote-treated wood.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers creosote (a coal-tar product used to protect wood from insects and rotting) a possible cancer-causing agent and warns the public not to burn it in fireplaces at home due to risk of releasing “toxic chemicals.”

Creosote-treated wood poses possible risks when used as landscaping, or if in contact with drinking water, the Environmental Protection Agency warns.

Along with items such as batteries and car tires, it’s also illegal under state law for residents to burn chemically treated wood as part of trash-disposing fires.

Fire officers working under the direction of Fire Management Officer Gary Bishop disposed of these railroad ties by adding them to a slash-burning fire, said Jackie Banks, a spokeswoman for the Kaibab National Forest.

Bishop did not immediately return a call seeking comment on Tuesday.

The site of the fire is off Forest Road 347, near a rail line headed from Williams to the Grand Canyon at the edge of the national forest.

“They thought they were doing a good thing by removing fuels that could have posed a lot of problems were they to catch fire during fire season,” Banks said.

ADEQ called on a report that the fire was still smoldering more than a week later, and the Forest Service learned it had erred, Banks said.

“We acknowledge that it was a mistake. We have handed over whatever information we have” to ADEQ, Banks said.

The environmental agency’s reports show that the Forest Service had permission to burn brush and other forest materials on Feb. 28, but not railroad ties or chemically treated wood.

ADEQ has not taken any enforcement action to date but says it is investigating the case.

prescribed fire

Prescribed fire at Fort Indiantown Gap

Here are two photos taken on March 3, 2011 of a prescribed fire at Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania.

They are described as follows on flickr where several more photos can be found.

Following work by the Aerial Ignition Crew the prescribed burn progresses at Fort Indiantown Gap on March 3, 2011 . Fort Indiantown Gap conducted the 2,500 acre burn in the training area using an aerial ignition technique using ping pong sized balls filled with [snip] that are injected with [snip] and dropped from a helicopter over the area designated for prescribed burning. Prescribed burns help reduce the potential of major wildfires on Fort Indiantown Gap property and more than 100 prescribed burns have occurred at the installation in the past decade. These burns are always conducted by properly trained personnel with an approved plan and coordinated with the appropriate authorities. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ted Nichols/Released)

I wish people would not publicize the formula for creating these “ping pong balls”.

prescribed fire