We recently did a small controlled-burn on the family tree farm. This was the first time all 3 kiddos had been out there to help at once. In this scenario I was just there to take pictures and supervise the munchkins. My Father-in-Law and Mr. Fix-It were managing the burn itself.

The tree farm is a couple hundred acres of longleaf pine, mixed with some cultivated fields, a beaver pond, and hardwood edges. Longleaf pine is native to this area, but is now found in less than 5% of it’s original growth areas. It is excellent for wildlife and particularly important to the red-cockaded woodpecker, so reintroducing it here supports much larger goals of forest diversity than just lumber. (Although it’s good for that too!)

I think the little pines look like pineapples spouting out of the ground as they grow.

The farm is managed in small sections, each at different stages of growth. So our controlled burn this time was around 5 acres.

There’s several hours of prep-work before the burn starts. You have to set the area to be burned, disc in a fire break around the area, and then walk the whole thing so you understand the lay of the ground before you light it. You want to double check any narrow spots or overhangs, and sometimes cut limbs back into the fire zone so you don’t have fuel to jump your fire break.

Our first attempt got cancelled once because of too much wind. You want a little bit to push the fire along, but not so much that it blows past your fire break.

Our second attempt the next evening got started slow and after about 20 minutes had hardly progressed at all because the ground was just to wet.

While we were out there it even started raining more, so that went nowhere. The rain put it out in about 30 more minutes.

This whole process is weather-dependent, so we watched the Weather Channel non-stop for 72 hours…

So we packed up the tools, the water, the tractors, the truck, and the kiddos and went back home.

Our third attempt was finally successful.

We lit on one side and basically walked along the fire break lighting the perimeter so the flames all meet in the middle and burn themselves out.

As Mr. Fix-It moved along, the crew and I were watching the fireline to make sure nothing broke out over the plowed fire break. Nothing did.

(The fire across the far end of the path in that picture is actually where the parcel makes a turn, not a fire break crossing.)

You can see from the pictures that the fire just burns along the ground, taking out the weeds, and killing off brush, brambles, and invasives like holly bushes. The pines might lose a few needles, but otherwise the tree is just fine.

Longleaf don’t do well with competition when they are young, so it’s very important to use controlled burning regularly when the saplings are getting established the first 10 years. Otherwise they’ll get crowded out and all that summer sweating you did planting them will be a waste.

The fire moves across the section and meets the back burn on the other side. I stayed on one side with 2 of the munchkins to keep an eye on things, while the “real” work crew moved around the edge to the other side to finish up.

About 2 hours of full burn finished the section we were working on.

I packed the truck, the Ladybug and Speedracer up to head home, but our Cowboy stayed out there to watch with Mr. Fix-It most of the night. Mostly to help clean up, put the equipment away, and make sure everything is out cold. The ground can stay hot for several days so we watched it the rest of the weekend to make sure nothing got stirred up again and then got some rain sprinkles to finish it off on Sunday.

That’s how we party hard on Friday nights around here! {grin}

If you’re interested in longleaf restoration and how to use controlled burns to manage forest lands, here’s a couple good resources….

American Forest Foundation … growing stewardship through family tree farms

Secrets of the Longleaf Pine … one hour documentary about the history of the longleaf pine in the southern USA, available on Amazon Prime

Expeditions with Patrick McMillin, Season 3 Episode 10-13 … FREE on Prime … 30 minute documentaries about the growth, deterioration, and rejuvenation of forestlands in the southeast US. Two whole episodes about the importance of longleaf pine and the use of fire for forest management.

Painting the Landscape with Fire (Longleaf Pines and Fire Ecology)

The Art of Managing Longleaf … This book is a really interesting read if your looking to understand logging, planting, and fire within the whole big picture of forest management. It’s specific to longleaf pines, but I think if you’re new to the topic, it has a lot of insights to any forest management plan.

Have you ever been part of a controlled or prescribed burn? I think it’s an amazing part of learning stewardship for the kiddos to see the burn, see the aftermath, and then see it 1-2-3 years down the road.