Prescribed Fire
A US pine species thrives when burnt. Southerners are rekindling a ‘fire culture’ to boost its range
By James Pollard, The Associated Press in halifax.citynews.ca, Dec 15, 2023 “Prescribed burn associations are proving key to conservationists’ efforts to restore a longleaf pine range forming the backbone of forest ecology in the American Southeast. ”
Legal standing for prescribed burns among proposed changes to B.C. forest laws
By Simon Little and Cassidy Mosconi, Global News October 31, 2023
US Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission: Final Report
US Gov. Sep 27, 2023. Ch 1 in the Final Report has a section on Use of Beneficial Fire: ” In fire-adapted ecosystems, it is critical to dramatically increase both the frequency and scope of beneficial fire to mitigate wildfire impacts to both landscapes and communities. In addition to this wildfire mitigation function, the landscape-scale use of beneficial fire is necessary for improving ecosystem structure and functions, remediating the effects of decades of fire exclusion, restoring watersheds, and respecting Tribal sovereignty. The deficit of naturally ignited and human-managed fire has already brought deep and long-lasting negative consequences, and the cost of continued inaction – of failing to return fire to the landscape – is high.
Planning a Burn
Province of British Columbia:
Prescribed fires
Parks Canada
| USE OF PRESCRIBED FIRE in the PINE BARRENS of NEW YORK & NEW JERSEY
Prescribed Fire Management Program
NY State Central Pine Barrens Joint Policy and Planning Commission.
Comprehensive set of web pages & documents describing the use of Prescribed Fire in the Central Pine Barrens [NY State].
The Central Pine Barrens Comprehensive Prescribed Fire Management Plan is an overarching guidance and planning document that identifies the long-term strategy and practice of conducting prescribed fire management in the Central Pine Barrens [NY State].
Fire in the Forest: The Science and History of Prescribed Burns in the New Jersey Pine Barrens
September 30, 2020 by AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) Staff
Fire Behavior in the New Jersey Pine Barrens
North Carolina State University. “While the Southeast is a leader in the use of prescribed fire, prescribed fire is also used as a land management tool across the nation and the world, including in the pine barrens of New Jersey. The videos on this page show what fire behavior looked like inside several prescribed fires conducted in the New Jersey pine barrens in 2019. The videos were taken using a transparent, water-cooled enclosure which houses a commercial 360-degree camera. The apparatus was developed by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.”
Tree Regeneration in Oak–Pine Stands with and without Prescribed Fire in the New Jersey Pine Barrens: Management Implications
MG Olson, NORTH. J. APPL. FOR. 28(1) 2011. “This is a case study comparing understory tree regeneration in two mixedwood stands types in the New Jersey Pine Barrens: oak–pine treated with prescribed fire over the last half century (burned) and oak–pine without a history of controlled burning (unburned). Understories of burned stands supported mainly desirable oak (Quercus spp.) and pine (Pinus spp.) regeneration (0.3 ft tall, 3 in. dbh), whereas the understories of unburned stands supported a greater abundance of undesirable, nonoak hardwoods (mainly sassafras [Sassafras albidum]) along with good numbers of oak regeneration and, unexpectedly, pine saplings (4.5 ft tall, 3 in. dbh). A regime of prescribed fire applied on an 6-year interval during the last half century appears to have reduced or excluded nonoak hardwoods, with the exception of hickory (Carya spp.). Maintaining oak–pine mixtures on sites similar to the unburned stands used in this study may require silvicultural intervention…On the section of WSF used in this study, a regime of prescribed fire was initiated around 1954, and forest stands treated with prescribed fire are typically burned in late winter on a return interval of 6 years (Steve Holmes, NJ Forest Fire Service, pers. comm., Mar. 3, 2010)…”
Pine Barrens natural landscape will rebound from Wharton wildfire
by Alison Mitchell in https://www.njconservation.org/, June 30, 2022
Fire management and carbon sequestration in Pine Barren Forests
Kenneth L. Clark et al., 2015. Journal of Sustainable Forestry. 34(1-2): 125-146. “Prescribed burning is the major viable option that land managers have for reducing hazardous fuels and ensuring the regeneration of fire-dependent species in a cost-effective manner in Pine Barren ecosystems. Fuels management activities are directly linked to carbon (C) storage and rates of C sequestration by forests. To evaluate the effects of prescribed burning on forest C dynamics, we quantified consumption and accumulation of the forest floor and understory vegetation and measured net CO2 exchange in upland forest stands in the New Jersey Pinelands burned with prescribed fires. Prescribed fires released an average of 470 ± 137 g C m-2 from the litter layer and understory, equivalent to approximately 2-3 yr of sequestered C in undisturbed upland forests. Canopy and understory foliage averaged 85% of preburn periods, and CO2 uptake at near-full sunlight conditions averaged 79% of preborn levels during the following growing season. On an annual basis, stands lost C during the year of the burn, but released C was recovered within 2-3 yr. Field measurements and model simulations suggest that continued prescribed burning in upland fire-dependent pine-dominated stands would have little appreciable effect on long-term forest C dynamics at the landscape scale.” Currently, the NJFFS and federal wildland fire managers conduct an average of 129 ± 31 prescribed burns on 4,650 ± 2,000 ha per year…
N.J. Forest Fire Service Demonstrates Its Use Of Prescribed Burns To Protect Residents Living In The State’s ‘Wildland-Urban Interface’
By Bill Bonvie for pinebarrenstribune.com, Mar 9, 2023 |
The Nature Conservancy to Expand Prescribed Fire Workforce and Partnership with the USDA Forest Service
https://www.nature.org/, Nov 2, 2023 “New agreements between the Forest Service and TNC will support the use of beneficial fire for landscapes and communities that need it most.”
