features
Friendly
fire
20 woodland • Spring 2015
features
bringing the burn back to
fire-dependent forests
text and photos by krista schlyer
S
moke rises in a billowing plume from the largest expanse of oldgrowth longleaf pine forest in the world. It’s early May in the
Florida panhandle and I stand with Brett Williams in the belly
of the fire, watching a ring of flame encircle the trunk of an aged pine.
The tree stands its ground, seemingly undisturbed by the orange-red
tongues licking hungrily around its base.
Williams and I are both clad in bright yellow protective gear from
head to foot, which reassures at least one of us when a young longleaf
erupts in a loud burst of sizzling flame so hot I can feel the warmth
from where I stand in the dusty road. Katydids and other insects flee
the forest by the hundreds, hopping on to the road and even up our
legs, while a fox lopes out of the fiery forest and across the sandy road
to safety.
The scene could be lifted straight from a television news report on
a catastrophic wildfire in the West. But in reality, it’s just another day
Fire is a natural and essential part of the life cycle of many forests, including native
longleaf pine woodlands of the Southeast (left). Intentionally set and carefully
managed fires, known as controlled or prescribed burns, can be an important tool
in restoring or maintaining these forests. Above: Brett Williams, a fire ecologist
at Eglin Air Force Base, checks to see whether a young longleaf tree survived
a controlled burn.
woodland • Spring 2015 21
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at Eglin Air Force Base. And Williams, despite his gear, isn’t a firefighter, he’s a firestarter and
ecologist, at one of the most active
prescribed fire centers in the nation.
Eglin and a handful of national
forests, private preserves, small family forests and research centers in the
South form the front lines of an effort to resuscitate a fading forest ecosystem—a demise that in no small
part is owed to the absence of fire.
As I watch fire dance over the
landscape, Williams leaves the road
and steps over low, lingering flames
and smoke rising in graceful wisps
from the charred forest floor. He approaches a blackened young longleaf
tree that nearly equals him in height
and pinches the tip-top of the tree,
which was on fire moments before.
He considers the texture, then looks
at me and nods.
“This one should make it through
just fine,” Williams says. “You can
tell, if the terminal bud is firm, the
tree is likely to survive.”
The low shrubs and young hardwoods, however, which had sprung
forth in the few years that passed
since fire last visited this tract, have
been reduced to charcoal sticks and
ash, as intended. This is the tricky
balance of prescribed burning in
longleaf country.
“It’s about finding a middle ground between enough heat to kill the
hardwoods and not enough to kill
the longleaf,” Williams says. Today,
across a thousand acres of Eglin forest, that balance seems to have
held, based on Williams’ preliminary
inspection, but that is not always the case.
“It’s not fire proof, you definitely
can kill [longleaf],” says Joel Martin,
director of the Solon Dixon Forestry
Education Center in southern Alabama, about an hour north of
Eglin. Martin, like Williams and any
other burn boss, faces the risk of doing more harm than good every
time he sets fire to the land.
22 woodland • Spring 2015
But even more perilous for the longleaf pine ecosystem is the
absence of fire altogether. Longleaf
pine forests once dominated the
South over 90 million acres, but a
combination of cut-and-run logging,
turpentining and fire suppression
have left only about 4 percent of
this rich forest system. And a crucial
prescription for its recovery requires
returning fire to the land.
For this reason, one of the primary objectives of America’s Longleaf
Restoration Initiative—a consortium
of restoration stakeholders that includes the American Forest Foundation, Eglin Air Force Base, the Solon Dixon Center and many others—is to assist landowners in increasing their prescribed fire activity.
fire history and ecology
Natural periodic fire and prescribed
burning were commonplace before
European settlers arrived in North
America. And even after, many in
the South followed the practice of
native peoples and burned the land
to achieve myriad fire objectives—
to increase forage for game species, to prepare agricultural land for
planting and to stave off catastrophic
wildfire by reducing fuels regularly.
“Most of Eglin was used for
turpentining instead of for timber,”
Williams notes. “The turpentiners would burn almost every year to
protect the trees from fire.”
But with the establishment of the
U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and heavy
influence from fire-phobic European foresters, fire suppression and
Smokey Bear were imposed on the
North American landscape.
“Smokey Bear did a really good
job of impacting people, but Smokey
might have been wrong,” says fire
specialist Jenn Evans, who facilitates the Prescribed Fire Working Group out of North Carolina State University.
Smokey’s mistake was this: fire
has been around since long before
humans began to both fear and wield
it. Plants and animals that lived in areas of frequent fire had adapted
to it—and many grew to depend on
it. Some trees, like longleaf, shortleaf and ponderosa pine, thrived in
a landscape of frequent fire, where
scorching flame would visit the
forest every few years, beating back
shrubs and hardwoods, and making
room for plant communities that
coped well with fire.
In the South, one of the most
lightning-prone areas in North
America, fire always had a strong
presence. And its influence sparked
a plant community whose diversity is
unequaled in the continental United
States—including carnivorous plants,
orchids, grasses and legumes that
support a unique animal community.
But when fire disappeared from this
system, so did native wildlife and
plants, and eventually the longleaf
pine itself.
“Any system, if you take fire out, it changes,” says Williams. “If you
stop burning you’ll have longleaf for as long as those trees will live, but you won’t have any of the seedlings or regeneration. It may take
100 or 150 years for all of the longleaf to die but eventually it will become hardwood.”
WHY BURN YOUR
FIRE-DEPENDENT FOREST?
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• Promote natural regeneration of
fire-dependent trees
• Improve wildlife habitat
• Control insects and disease
• Save money: Burning is often less
expensive than pesticides and
herbicides
• Reduce fuels and prevent wildfire
Right: Many creatures native to longleaf
pine forests benefit from fire, including
gopher tortoises. These tortoises need
fire to promote the growth of their food
plants and to clear pathways for them
to move through the forest. Opposite
page: Longleaf pines evolved to endure
periodic fires. Despite the charred look
of this longleaf woodland, most of these
trees have survived.
The Solon Dixon Center, which
serves as an outdoor classroom for
Auburn University forestry students,
has two side-by-side tracts of forest
that illustrate this progression. One
has not been burned since 1999, while the other is managed with
periodic prescribed fire. The unburned
tract may still harbor some longleaf—
but if so they are well-hidden in
a tangle of shrubs and hardwood
growth. The other exhibits the open,
sun-washed, savanna-like structure
of a natural longleaf forest.
The only variable—fire.
“You’re not just managing trees,
you’re managing light,” the center’s
Martin explains of longleaf forest
management. “How much light is hitting the ground and how much is getting stopped at the mid-story.”
In the absence of fire, light will be choked off from the forest floor
by fast-growing, mid-story plants and
hardwoods. Longleaf will eventually disappear, and the groundcover plants
and their dependent animals will be lost much more quickly. One such
species, bobwhite quail, played a starring role in the birth of fire ecology.
In the early 1900s, the nation’s
remnant longleaf forests were often
the site of an economy built around
quail hunting, largely by wealthy
northerners who bought up pine
plantations so they could hunt quail
a few months out of the year. But
about that same time, fire exclusion
became a frontline priority of the USFS, and the quail began to disappear. In 1923, concerned about the
health of quail populations in southern Georgia, a group of hunters and
landowners created a private fund
to study the disappearance of quail
from longleaf pine forests. They
hired a lead investigator, Herbert
Stoddard.
What Stoddard found, as relayed
by author Lawrence Early in his book Looking for Longleaf, was that: “the decline of quail and longleaf pine were intertwined and that both were related to the Forest Service’s
hostility to fire.”
“Quail will only nest in frequently
burned forests,” Williams says. Fire
favors the plants whose seeds they
eat, and it clears away thick vegetation that blocks quail from accessing
their food on the forest floor.
For longleaf, fire clears the forest
bed so that its seeds can take root,
and it clears out other shrubs and
trees that can otherwise outcompete longleaf for space, sunlight and
nutrients. In an intense fire, most
shrubs, hardwoods and even loblolly
and slash pine will die, but not longleaf. It was built to withstand fire
from a very young age.
Longleaf starts life as a grass with
a good root system and it can stay low
to the ground for years, with its bud
protected from fire by long needles.
As a teenager, it can be gawky and
vulnerable, but by the time it reaches
maturity, longleaf ’s thick bark gives it tremendous protection from fire.
Fire is a friend to most of the
native residents of this forest, from
endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers and gopher tortoise to more
common species like wild turkey.
“Turkey love our burns,” Williams says. “They’ll come in during the burn.
You’ll look over in an area you just
burned that’s now black and there’s
turkey in it. All the dead insects draw them.”
the challenge of fire
After the release of Stoddard’s
report, The Bobwhite Quail: Its Habits,
Preservation and Increase, in 1931, a
debate ensued and for the most part
fire exclusion continued for many
years. But throughout the second
half of the 20th century, an effort woodland • Spring 2015 23
AFF ON THE GROUND
A forest fire burns at night in western Montana.
© LINDA ROBERTS/SHUTTERSTOCK
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HELPING BUILD RESILIENCE TO WILDFIRES IN THE WEST
Fire is a natural and necessary ingredient in forest health. But
things have gotten out of control, particularly in the West. Fire
seasons are lasting longer, fires are bigger and more difficult
to manage and firefighting costs are skyrocketing.
Historically, the federal government’s firefighting efforts
have focused mostly on public lands. But fire doesn’t respect
the boundary lines on a map. So federal agencies, led by the
U.S. Forest Service, have begun rethinking fire management
and adopting a more cohesive approach that transcends the
public-private divide.
To help with this monumental challenge—73 million acres
burned during the past decade and likely 100 million more acres
are in need of restoration—the American Forest Foundation
(AFF) is developing a portfolio of project areas across the West
to reduce the impact of forest fire by increasing the scale
of forest restoration on private forest lands. Our first project
in this portfolio is in the Blue Mountains of Oregon.
The Blue Mountains encompass more than 24,000 square
miles of scenic, rugged terrain. A wide variety of creatures,
from elk to eagles, call the area home. Small rural communities
dot the countryside, with long traditions of farming, ranching
and timber production. The area also has a long tradition of
aggressive fire suppression.
Many of the stands of ponderosa pine, douglas fir, and
western larch in the Blue Mountains are at risk of catastrophic
wildfire. This threatens not only homes and livelihoods but
also wildlife habitat and water quality.
Working with local partners, AFF is engaging landowners in
a four-county area within the Blue Mountains to increase not
only their awareness of their fire risk but provide them with
resources and assistance to act to reduce that risk.
“By bringing new landowners to the table and empowering
them, we can help increase forest and community resiliency
to the inevitable fire,” says Tom Fry, director of western forest
conservation for AFF. “And in doing so, we’ll restore wildlife
habitat, safeguard water supplies and support the community
knowledge and infrastructure necessary to carry this work
forward in the years to come.”
For more information, visit www.forestfoundation.org/
preventing-wildfire-in-the-west
24 woodland • Spring 2015
RESTORING LONGLEAF PINE IN MISSISSIPPI
Mississippi’s Piney Woods region is home to some of the
best remaining longleaf pine forests in the country. Like most
forests across the South, the Piney Woods are primarily
owned by individuals and families. But fewer than 8 percent
of Mississippi’s woodland owners have a management plan
or work with professional foresters. So there’s an enormous
gap between forestry services and the people who could
benefit from them.
The American Forest Foundation is striving to bridge that
gap. We are working closely with partners in Mississippi to
develop new techniques to reach landowners in the Piney
Woods region more efficiently, improve forest management
and restore longleaf pine.
Our project involves the following:
•L
earning from landowners what motivates their decisions
around forest management.
•M
aking sure that landowners have the information and
resources they need to manage their land.
•T
esting messages to motivate landowners to participate
in forest management.
“There have been a lot of accomplishments from stakeholders focused on longleaf restoration across the South over the
past 20 years,” says Chris Erwin, director of southern forest
conservation for AFF. “The Piney Woods project partners are
working to add to those successes by reaching family forest
owners that may not have a plan mapped out. This project
helps landowners get the technical assistance they need for
making informed decisions on their property.”
For more information, visit www.forestfoundation.org/
piney-woods-conservation-in-southern-mississippi or
www.mypineywoods.org
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to reclaim prescribed fire slowly took
root, until today there is a growing
cadre of fire advocates and an everbroadening interest in fire ecology.
As a result, the acreage of longleaf
forest burned each year is on the rise.
In 2013, 1.1 million acres of longleaf
were burned. But most of this burning was conducted on public land.
“Public lands make a very small
piece of the range,” says Vernon
Compton, project director in Alabama and Florida for the Longleaf Alliance. “If we are going to recover longleaf, we need to work
with private landowners.” (To learn
how the American Forest Foundation is working with private landowners
to restore longleaf, see “AFF on the
Ground” on page 24.)
Prescribed burning is an intensive practice that is highly subject to
weather conditions, state permitting processes and public perception. The general public fears fire, intentional fire is not well understood and there is a very real need to balance air quality and forest ecology.
Woodland owners face risks and liability if their fire or smoke
causes problems on roads or adjacent properties.
“Every day we come out and light a match, it’s taking a risk,” Williams says.
But there are ways to minimize
risk and get support from neighbors,
government agencies and nonprofit
organizations.
“In Oklahoma, they have cooperatives where landowners get together
and pool their resources—whether it be equipment or people—and help
each other burn,” Williams notes.
And many insurance agencies are now offering affordable liability insurance on a per-burn rate, a
relatively new opportunity for small
landowners. Some states also have
protections for burners built into
their legal system.
“Florida has the strongest burner
protection laws out there,” Williams
says. “In order to be liable for an incident with a prescribed fire you have
to be found grossly negligent—that
you went out without a prescription
and started a fire you knew was going
to cause problems.”
Given these protections and the
support and incentives available for
burning, most landowners and managers will tell you the benefits outweigh the risks. Fire-prone forests
are going to burn under controlled
conditions or they’re going to burn
in a wildfire, says Compton.
“And where fire has been excluded the land will burn to a crisp,” he
says. “There is a consequence to not
burning.” (To learn how the American Forest Foundation is working
to reduce the risk of catastrophic
wildfires in the West, see “AFF on
the Ground” on page 24.)
Fire is also the least expensive,
most wildlife-friendly and environmentally sensitive way to improve
nutrients and control weedy competition, insects and disease in a
fire-adapted forest. According to the
U.S. Forest Service, chemical and
mechanical treatments can be 10 to
20 times more expensive, making the
forest management benefits of fire
compelling for the family forest.
North Carolina Tree Farmers Dwight and Judy Batts started burning their longleaf about 10 years ago,
after a cousin in the Forest Service advised them on the benefits. They
have seen positive results and significant cost-savings, so much so that now
Dwight helps encourage his neighbors
to prescribe burn their forests.
“It’s cheap, it does an excellent job
and it helps wildlife,” Dwight says,
summing up the findings of a century
of discourse and debate about the
often friendly nature of fire.
Krista Schlyer is a Maryland-based writer
and photographer who contributes regularly
to Woodland.
PRESCRIBED FIRE RESOURCES
Thinking about burning? Check out
these great resources for beginner
and experienced burners.
1. My Land Plan: AFF’s website for woodland owners has extensive information
available at www.mylandplan.org/
content/prescribed-burns
2. B
asic Prescribed Fire Training: This
online course taught by Jenn Evans
is an excellent resource for the
beginning burner. Available at
http://campus.extension.org
3. Southeast Prescribed Fire Update:
This blog by fire specialist Jenn
Evans contains up-to-date information about fire trainings, as well as a
comprehensive listing of resources
for burners in the South and beyond.
http://research.cnr.ncsu.edu/blogs/
southeast-fire-update/
4. State Forestry Office: Your state
forestry office is a good place to start
learning about the state regulations
and cost-share opportunities available
for prescribed burning. Some states
have certification programs, which
are highly recommended for
beginning burners.
5. N
eighbors: If your neighbors are
burning, ask if you can assist them.
It’s a great way to gain on-the-ground
experience. Some states have prescribed burning associations where
neighbors help neighbors conduct
prescribed burns. If your region
doesn’t have one, consider starting
one or just setting up an informal
collaboration.
6. F
orestry webinars: Available at
http://www.forestrywebinars.net.
This website contains short seminars
on many forestry topics, including
fire. The fire webinars, found in the
right-hand column, tackle issues like
smoke management, burn planning
and burning with a consultant.
woodland • Spring 2015 25