Prescribed Burns

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Ranch Dog
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Prescribed Burns

Post by Ranch Dog »

I consider prescribed burns a huge part of my wildlife management practices and my burn season just finished! I burnt 91 acres. Here are some photos!

January 16 - Started by back burning a safe area around the homes on my place.

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Typical fire breaks around burn units.

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Moving the ground blinds out of the burn units.

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I use a disc with a drag for the breaks. The breaks get extremely rutted up while the burn is going on, so I disk the breaks again after the burn to smooth the ruts out and then pack them with a cultipacker. After that, I don't drive on them again until after it rains and dries. These steps make for a hard, smooth road surface.

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There is a burn ban in place in my County, but by Texas Code, I'm exempt from it with conditions that include a complete plan of conditions and actions; hence, the name, prescribed burn. I have all the required equipment, but probably one of the most important is my road signs. They keep traffic from calling 911. My County's Dispatch is notified of before the burn, and hopefully, the signs keep additional calls to a minimum.

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The burns: February 8th.

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February 16th

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February 18th

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Some finds

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This year, the first two burns were with the help of a friend whose job includes performing prescribed burns on the properties he is responsible for. For the last burn, I worked solo, which will wear you out as you are doing all the walking (sometimes running) of at least two people.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Post by RBHarter »

A couple good snakes there .

The controlled burns are probably more wore than a run away .
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Post by Ranch Dog »

Funny you mention the runway as in the first year of my flying career I flew for a ranch that owned large tracts in Mexico, from one end of that country to the other. One was down in Campeche up against the corner of that State where it butts up against Guatemala on the south and east side. It was a short, grass strip of about 1,000' that they would burn right before I landed. When I came across the southern coast of the Gulf, I would call them on the ranch radio, and they would light it off. With no navigation aids, such as there are today, it would be tough to have found in the 60' canopy jungle. I would not spend the night on the ranch with the owner, and there wasn't a dwelling with other than a dirt floor. The jungle and thatched huts freaked me out, plus there is nothing I like about monkeys. After two days, the strip would need to be burnt again, the growth was that quick.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Post by Fyodor »

Just curious:

What are these burns for? This is completely prohibited in Germany (you even need a permit to burn a few pounds of green waste in your back yard), so I don't have a clue what it actually is for.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Post by Ranch Dog »

It is used to remove the thatch that has built up from previous growth cycles, reduce the brush density, and in that that my place is undergoing a native prairie/savannah restoration (vs. improved pasture grasses), it is vital for utilizing the native seeds which require the heat to be productive. The latter is the crazy part of how nature provides before we interfered; no sense in wasting the seed on the ground unless the thatch buildup is gone and the ground is wet. How about we use a thunderstorm to ignite the prairie (heat the seed) and then use the rain to extinguish it; oh, even going to prep the soil with potash as a fertilizer. Our Native Americans and other aborigines around the globe figured this out and started taking control of nature by setting fires to make the process an annual event, and everything just got worse from there.

I plan a burning a particular unit at about a three to a four-year rotation. The properties along the highway might be burned more often as I'm concerned about a spark generated from that source. One year it was a wheel bearing going out on a trailer and coals from a Bar-B-Q pit. Yeah, they are on wheels here in Texas. There are a lot of idiots that will start their coals before they travel, so they will be ready when they get where they are going. I know, I know; unbelievable.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Post by Ranch Dog »

The burn also keeps fleas & ticks plus other parasites under control plus non-native invasive species of plants and vines. Unfortunately, it does not seem to bother the fire ant which came to us via Brazil.

When a deer or hog is killed on my land, it is clean as a whistle, not a parasite on it.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Post by Ranch Dog »

Fyodor wrote:What are these burns for? This is completely prohibited in Germany (you even need a permit to burn a few pounds of green waste in your back yard), so I don't have a clue what it actually is for.
The father of American conservation, Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) who was the son of a German immigrant, would be very sad to hear this. Mr. Leopold read the handwriting on the wall concerning the loss of habitat in America but turned around and wrote the book on modern conservation practices. His "Axe, plow, cow, fire, gun" model is still the most successful form of land management written.

I've read every word that this fellow has published, I remain aware of just how important his writings are to me today. I always think of him while burning as he even left us (those that burn) an important lesson in this activity. Burning is a very physical activity, and you must be fit to go the distance or not participate in it. Mr. Leopold died from a heart attack while conducting a prescribed burn.
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