Prescribed Burns

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Drob7707
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Prescribed Burns

Unread postby Drob7707 » Sat Feb 24, 2018 1:37 am

In a piece of public that I hunt the forestry is set to have a prescribed burn of 1,932 acres by the end of April. If I am out there scouting now is that sign going to mean anything come fall? I wasn't sure what effect this would have on the deer in this area or how long it would take them to get back to "normal." I was just curious to see if any of you guys had any experience with this or any thoughts. Thanks


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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby Bigburner » Sat Feb 24, 2018 6:55 am

Im a prescribed fire manager for a state forestry agency. Not sure what the cover type is so that is dependent on that so if you could elaborate a little I can give you a really good idea of the fire effects. Normally its very short term and the regenerative effects will benefit the area in the long run. They wouldn't be doing it if they weren't expecting a positive outcome.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby creepingdeth » Sat Feb 24, 2018 8:16 am

Good question...dont have an answer as far as # of years, but even though its a controlled opposed to a natural burn, I'd think it would be overall good for future hunting. Jackpine cones only pop when they reach a high temp. You'd think there would be immediate (next year) food, but it may take a couple years to establish that "thick" for bedding.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby Dewey » Sat Feb 24, 2018 11:29 am

Not sure about forests but I know in marshes prescribed burns are nothing but good for the land. Short term it looks pretty ugly but within a year you can’t even tell it was done because vegetation grows back in so quickly just not so thick like it was before. As long as they do it in spring before greenup I’m happy. Everything greens up nicely before the opener in September.

The bad thing is in my area they did some burning in one of my better spots smack dab in the middle of peak rut last season. :angry-banghead:
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby ZSV » Sat Feb 24, 2018 1:43 pm

Dewey wrote:The bad thing is in my area they did some burning in one of my better spots smack dab in the middle of peak rut last season. :angry-banghead:


I was up a tree on 11/20 last season when the DNR started burning a 600 acre chunk that I happened to be in. At least they gave me a ride back to my truck in their gator....
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby elk yinzer » Sat Feb 24, 2018 2:59 pm

As soon as the smoke clears to 5+ years depending on the intensity of the burn and what they are burning to begin with. Generally a great thing though. In my opinion an even better habitat management tool than timber harvest.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby Jonny » Sat Feb 24, 2018 3:57 pm

I’m finding a lot of charcoal trees by me in the marsh :think:
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Sat Feb 24, 2018 4:21 pm

Dewey wrote:Not sure about forests but I know in marshes prescribed burns are nothing but good for the land. Short term it looks pretty ugly but within a year you can’t even tell it was done because vegetation grows back in so quickly just not so thick like it was before. As long as they do it in spring before greenup I’m happy. Everything greens up nicely before the opener in September.

The bad thing is in my area they did some burning in one of my better spots smack dab in the middle of peak rut last season. :angry-banghead:

burns in forests are just as good if not better it really gets the new growth back in areas that otherwise useless to deer.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Sat Feb 24, 2018 4:30 pm

Drob7707 wrote:In a piece of public that I hunt the forestry is set to have a prescribed burn of 1,932 acres by the end of April. If I am out there scouting now is that sign going to mean anything come fall? I wasn't sure what effect this would have on the deer in this area or how long it would take them to get back to "normal." I was just curious to see if any of you guys had any experience with this or any thoughts. Thanks

the its going to be real good in a couple years if all the brush gets burnt off they will use it less for a while but overall expect more deer in long run. if they do burns buy you see if you can get records of it look for those 3 to 4 year burns. new burns can be great early season when the grass is tall there will be a lot of wild flowers the deer love to eat.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby Drob7707 » Sat Feb 24, 2018 11:31 pm

Sorry I guess I should have specified the terrain and habitat a little more. It's on our state forest lands which is basically hill county or what we call the mountain. The 1932 acres is mostly comprised of mixed hardwoods and a lot of thick mountain laurel and briars in some areas. There is also some areas that were logged years ago that are very thick with small saplings.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby Bigburner » Sun Feb 25, 2018 11:34 am

Ok well the fire effect will be different throughout the unit. Fire burns really well two ways. Uphill and downwind. The uphill runs will burn very fast and very hot. So the exposures that are aligned with an uphill run will burn more intense. But when you light things off in the hills you work off or ridge tops mostly so you keep the fire intensity down for safety purposes the allows the fire to back down hill it has a very low intensity. You often times construct your breaks on the ridge tops unless you have established roads or trails to work off of. This is how you keep your folks from getting killed. A fire burning down hill in leaf litter you can kick out with your boot. A fire that is aligned and going uphill you have a about zero chance of stopping it without aircraft. So the contrast is that apparent.
If the laurel is on a slope with good uphill run that stuff is nuclear. It has a waxy coating on the leaves and when it reaches the right temperature the stuff doesn’t burn it explodes. So I know that makes for some good bedding in the right spot so it could temporarily shift some things around. But overall you should get a mix of high and low intensity fire throughout the landscape which will creat a really good patchwork of cover coming back into the area over the next few years. This will be a really good thing for your spot. Another cool thing to note. Even in really intense wildfires I have yet to see a bed or deer trail burn over. With the leaves having been compacted over all that time the fire just flashes over or stops all together especially with a backing fire. Kinda cool when you see all these unburied lines running with the contours. It will show you all the travel corridors. But things should come back nice. You often time get plants that haven’t occupied the landscape for decades come back in force after a good fire. A few years back I did a burn for one our state parks and they had a few rare orchids out there. Just a handful that they had noted over the years and kept the locations secret. After we burned thousands of those damn things came up out of the ground where the korms were sitting dormant in the soil for years and years. Just a cool side antidote.
Almost forgot about the saplings in the logging units. A lot of it might get top killed. Especially maple and I assume you might have beach and you probably have a lot of oak. Oak needs fire to regenerate a lot of times. The other species will get fried but the oak will re-sprout that spring and give it time to outcompete the less desirable species. If you want oak to grow back in your hardwood stands fire is about the only really consistent way I know of to do it and this is coming from my fire and mostly my forester background . So maybe one of your state forestry agencies main objectives is oak regen. It’s usually pretty high on my list along with fuel reduction.
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby Hawthorne » Sun Feb 25, 2018 11:55 am

Go look for sheds right after the burn. They stick out like sore thumbs against the burnt ground. Turkeys love the fresh growth. Could make good turkey hunting if they burn in early spring
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby wolverinebuckman » Sun Feb 25, 2018 12:01 pm

Bigburner wrote:Ok well the fire effect will be different throughout the unit. Fire burns really well two ways. Uphill and downwind. The uphill runs will burn very fast and very hot. So the exposures that are aligned with an uphill run will burn more intense. But when you light things off in the hills you work off or ridge tops mostly so you keep the fire intensity down for safety purposes the allows the fire to back down hill it has a very low intensity. You often times construct your breaks on the ridge tops unless you have established roads or trails to work off of. This is how you keep your folks from getting killed. A fire burning down hill in leaf litter you can kick out with your boot. A fire that is aligned and going uphill you have a about zero chance of stopping it without aircraft. So the contrast is that apparent.
If the laurel is on a slope with good uphill run that stuff is nuclear. It has a waxy coating on the leaves and when it reaches the right temperature the stuff doesn’t burn it explodes. So I know that makes for some good bedding in the right spot so it could temporarily shift some things around. But overall you should get a mix of high and low intensity fire throughout the landscape which will creat a really good patchwork of cover coming back into the area over the next few years. This will be a really good thing for your spot. Another cool thing to note. Even in really intense wildfires I have yet to see a bed or deer trail burn over. With the leaves having been compacted over all that time the fire just flashes over or stops all together especially with a backing fire. Kinda cool when you see all these unburied lines running with the contours. It will show you all the travel corridors. But things should come back nice. You often time get plants that haven’t occupied the landscape for decades come back in force after a good fire. A few years back I did a burn for one our state parks and they had a few rare orchids out there. Just a handful that they had noted over the years and kept the locations secret. After we burned thousands of those damn things came up out of the ground where the korms were sitting dormant in the soil for years and years. Just a cool side antidote.
Almost forgot about the saplings in the logging units. A lot of it might get top killed. Especially maple and I assume you might have beach and you probably have a lot of oak. Oak needs fire to regenerate a lot of times. The other species will get fried but the oak will re-sprout that spring and give it time to outcompete the less desirable species. If you want oak to grow back in your hardwood stands fire is about the only really consistent way I know of to do it and this is coming from my fire and mostly my forester background . So maybe one of your state forestry agencies main objectives is oak regen. It’s usually pretty high on my list along with fuel reduction.


Man, this is such cool information. I love fire, always have, and trees. You have an awesome job!
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Sun Feb 25, 2018 12:43 pm

wolverinebuckman wrote:
Bigburner wrote:Ok well the fire effect will be different throughout the unit. Fire burns really well two ways. Uphill and downwind. The uphill runs will burn very fast and very hot. So the exposures that are aligned with an uphill run will burn more intense. But when you light things off in the hills you work off or ridge tops mostly so you keep the fire intensity down for safety purposes the allows the fire to back down hill it has a very low intensity. You often times construct your breaks on the ridge tops unless you have established roads or trails to work off of. This is how you keep your folks from getting killed. A fire burning down hill in leaf litter you can kick out with your boot. A fire that is aligned and going uphill you have a about zero chance of stopping it without aircraft. So the contrast is that apparent.
If the laurel is on a slope with good uphill run that stuff is nuclear. It has a waxy coating on the leaves and when it reaches the right temperature the stuff doesn’t burn it explodes. So I know that makes for some good bedding in the right spot so it could temporarily shift some things around. But overall you should get a mix of high and low intensity fire throughout the landscape which will creat a really good patchwork of cover coming back into the area over the next few years. This will be a really good thing for your spot. Another cool thing to note. Even in really intense wildfires I have yet to see a bed or deer trail burn over. With the leaves having been compacted over all that time the fire just flashes over or stops all together especially with a backing fire. Kinda cool when you see all these unburied lines running with the contours. It will show you all the travel corridors. But things should come back nice. You often time get plants that haven’t occupied the landscape for decades come back in force after a good fire. A few years back I did a burn for one our state parks and they had a few rare orchids out there. Just a handful that they had noted over the years and kept the locations secret. After we burned thousands of those damn things came up out of the ground where the korms were sitting dormant in the soil for years and years. Just a cool side antidote.
Almost forgot about the saplings in the logging units. A lot of it might get top killed. Especially maple and I assume you might have beach and you probably have a lot of oak. Oak needs fire to regenerate a lot of times. The other species will get fried but the oak will re-sprout that spring and give it time to outcompete the less desirable species. If you want oak to grow back in your hardwood stands fire is about the only really consistent way I know of to do it and this is coming from my fire and mostly my forester background . So maybe one of your state forestry agencies main objectives is oak regen. It’s usually pretty high on my list along with fuel reduction.


Man, this is such cool information. I love fire, always have, and trees. You have an awesome job!
I like it thanks for the info
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Re: Prescribed Burns

Unread postby Drob7707 » Sun Feb 25, 2018 3:41 pm

Bigburner wrote:Ok well the fire effect will be different throughout the unit. Fire burns really well two ways. Uphill and downwind. The uphill runs will burn very fast and very hot. So the exposures that are aligned with an uphill run will burn more intense. But when you light things off in the hills you work off or ridge tops mostly so you keep the fire intensity down for safety purposes the allows the fire to back down hill it has a very low intensity. You often times construct your breaks on the ridge tops unless you have established roads or trails to work off of. This is how you keep your folks from getting killed. A fire burning down hill in leaf litter you can kick out with your boot. A fire that is aligned and going uphill you have a about zero chance of stopping it without aircraft. So the contrast is that apparent.
If the laurel is on a slope with good uphill run that stuff is nuclear. It has a waxy coating on the leaves and when it reaches the right temperature the stuff doesn’t burn it explodes. So I know that makes for some good bedding in the right spot so it could temporarily shift some things around. But overall you should get a mix of high and low intensity fire throughout the landscape which will creat a really good patchwork of cover coming back into the area over the next few years. This will be a really good thing for your spot. Another cool thing to note. Even in really intense wildfires I have yet to see a bed or deer trail burn over. With the leaves having been compacted over all that time the fire just flashes over or stops all together especially with a backing fire. Kinda cool when you see all these unburied lines running with the contours. It will show you all the travel corridors. But things should come back nice. You often time get plants that haven’t occupied the landscape for decades come back in force after a good fire. A few years back I did a burn for one our state parks and they had a few rare orchids out there. Just a handful that they had noted over the years and kept the locations secret. After we burned thousands of those damn things came up out of the ground where the korms were sitting dormant in the soil for years and years. Just a cool side antidote.
Almost forgot about the saplings in the logging units. A lot of it might get top killed. Especially maple and I assume you might have beach and you probably have a lot of oak. Oak needs fire to regenerate a lot of times. The other species will get fried but the oak will re-sprout that spring and give it time to outcompete the less desirable species. If you want oak to grow back in your hardwood stands fire is about the only really consistent way I know of to do it and this is coming from my fire and mostly my forester background . So maybe one of your state forestry agencies main objectives is oak regen. It’s usually pretty high on my list along with fuel reduction.



Thanks for all the good info bigburner. I was a little skeptical about the burn at first but after reading what you said it sounds like it will be really good for the area.


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