(05/23/17) MANY, La. – Participants in a recent forestry workshop learned how to use good fire to prevent a bad fire.

Participants in the prescribed burning workshop, held May 16-18, set fire to the forest floor in a 13-acre tract with a covering of pine straw and a healthy growth of a small tree called a yaupon that grows densely in wooded areas.

The event at the Hodges Gardens State Park was presented by the LSU AgCenter, the AgCenter School of Renewable Natural Resources and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

Two dozen people attended the workshop, including timber company employees, forestry consultants and landowners.

Upon successfully completing the workshop and five controlled burns, a participant may be certified by LDAF to conduct prescribed burns. The certification also provides some legal protection if techniques taught in this workshop are used. However, the certification does not provide protection for gross negligence.

The workshop included extensive classroom instruction and a test. The day of the controlled burn exercise started with a test burn of a small area to see how the smoke would travel and whether the fire would spread in a slow, controllable manner.

“It’s a lot easier to put out a 30-foot circle than a 30-acre circle,” said Bret Lane, LDAF fire programming manager.

An LDAF pilot flew a small plane overhead to watch the smoke’s travel. “He can tell us what’s going on,” Lane said.

He explained that the idea is not to incinerate the entire forest floor. “We don’t want to burn it down to just dirt,” he said.

A fire only needs to reach 147 degrees to kill young plants. Lane cut into a sapling to show that a small tree would probably survive the burn even though its bark was singed. “It’s still got a good cambium layer,” he said.

A breeze kept the smoke moving aloft instead of hanging low to the ground.

“The smoke is getting up in the air good,” said Keith Hawkins, AgCenter forestry agent in Beauregard Parish.

Burning pine straw and leaves helps eliminate fuel that could feed a wildfire that would burn out of control and kill valuable trees, Hawkins said.

A tree’s bark has some insulation against severe heat. A pine sapling 3 inches in diameter at the ground has enough bark to survive a fire, he said, but trees and shrubs, such as yaupon, with thin bark are more susceptible to fire injury.

It’s important for the public to understand that fire is beneficial. “A controlled fire is better than a wild fire,” Hawkins said.

Smokey Bear’s slogan once advised, “Only you can prevent forest fires.” But now Smoky says, “Only you can prevent wild fires,” Hawkins said.

Burning mimics a naturally occurring fire started by lightning, Hawkins said. It opens the forest and improves the habitat for wildlife such as turkey and deer.

Conducting a burn requires planning and close observation of weather conditions. “There are only 10 to 20 suitable days a year. You do it when conditions are optimum with the right wind and humidity. You pick the right day when the smoke will go up and disperse,” Hawkins said.

He explained that a dead calm day with still air is likely to allow smoke to accumulate in a thick fog near the ground, but a day with steady wind will carry the smoke upward.

Kim Kelly, manager of Hodges Gardens, said a controlled burn is needed on much of the 948-acre park. “It keeps the underbrush down,” Kelly said. “It’s a win-win for everybody.”

The wooded area at the park’s entrance was intentionally burned a few years ago, leaving an open forest.

A controlled burn was conducted at the park last year also, when the workshop was first held, she said.

“Each year, we’re trying to burn a little more, and a little more around the lake,” Kelly said.

The controlled burn students used large-toothed rakes to gather leaves and pine straw in areas where burning is undesirable, such as around utility poles.

“Flappers” are used to put out small fires that could erupt into a large blaze. The tools, which look like oversized fly swatters, are drug across a fire because swatting with them could spread a fire.

Containers of fuel, call ground starters, have a wick to keep a constant flame that is used to start the fire. Fires are ignited at the top of a hill to prevent flames from spreading too quickly.

A bulldozer and a fire engine are nearby to control the fire if it gets out of hand.

Landowner Gary Dula, of DeQuincy, said he has attended the workshop before, but he attended this time with his son who will help him do a burn on family property.

Rusty Bellue, a landowner from Lake Charles, said he has benefitted from the workshop. “I’m a new property owner, and I want to learn. This is almost identical to the property we have,” he said

Jason Morvant, who works for a timber contractor, said burning provides the additional benefit of controlling ticks and chiggers.

Milton Powell, a Dallas architect, said he attended the workshop to learn how controlled burning can be carried out on his family property in Claiborne Parish. He said it will be five or six years before he can burn because the land has been replanted.

“I’m trying to learn as much as I can,” Powell said. “I’ve read about burning, but I’ve never see it done.”

Finally, the 13-acre tract was surrounded by a ring of fire that moved to the center. The flames rose and fell, and cracked and popped when they reach a stand of yaupon. The students sat back and watched the flames build to an inferno then die to a flicker.

“You know the grand finale at a fireworks show? This is what we’ve got right here,” said Jason Van Zile of LDAF. “Usually the hottest part of the fire is right at the end.”

Rusty Bellue, of Lake Charles, demonstrates how a “flapper” is used to smother flames on the edge of a controlled burn. Photo by Bruce Schultz/LSU AgCenter

Niels de Hoop with the LSU AgCenter School of Renewable Natural Resources explains safety precautions to be used during a recent prescribed burn workshop at Hodges Gardens State Park. Photo by Bruce Schultz/LSU AgCenter

Flames rise over the heads of student Gary Dula and Jason Van Zile, of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, during a recent workshop to teach techniques used in a controlled burn. Dula is using a ground torch to set fire to leaves and pine straw to burn the understory of the forest. Photo by Bruce Schultz/LSU AgCenter

The last portion of a ring of fire spreads to encircle a 13-acre tract of land at Hodges Gardens State Park near Many, Louisiana. The fire was intentionally set during a prescribed burn workshop to eliminate dried plant material such as pine straw that would be a fuel source during a wildfire that could become difficult to control. Photo by Bruce Schultz/LSU AgCenter