Let It Burn

Written by Mark Carroll, Land and Farm Specialist

Fire has been used by man on the landscape for thousands of years.  Fire consumes, renews, and enhances all at once.  Most of us associate a large plume of grey smoke with something terrible, such as wildfire or the loss of a home.  However, this time of year is known as “burn season” to many land managers who call themselves prescribed fire managers.  Prescribed fire season generally runs from late February through to the fall, though most managers like to burn during the early growing season from March on into late April.  

To understand the why and how of prescribed fire, we must first start off with a light ecology refresher.  The stages of ecological succession begin with nudation and progress through to stabilization.   You can think of nudation as a bare site with nothing but mineral soils.  As seeds from a suite of site-specific species germinate, grow, and mature, through time and the ecological process of succession, they will eventually reach stabilization as a mature and diverse forest here in the Piedmont of SC.  That’s all we need for now.  

As ecosystems grow and mature, the plant communities held within grow and mature through the process of succession.  As these plant communities change, so does the wildlife that thrive there.  Many wildlife species benefit from early successional stage ecosystems.  The grasses, forbes, and shrubs which dominate the plant communities are great for ground nesting birds such as wild turkeys, bobwhite quail, Bachman’s sparrows, and many more.  This ecosystem can be thought of as a knee to thigh high brushy type with grasses and low shrubs interspersed.   

Now for the good part.  Prescribed fire is the best tool for “setting back” the stages of succession.  Just as we set back our clocks several weeks ago, prescribed fire gains us the ecosystem which slowly faded away during the ongoing progression of maturing plant communities through the process of succession.  Flames sweep across the landscape as they consume, renew, and enhance in a way that seems to rejuvenate a fading ecosystem back to its years of youth.  Grasses, young and tender plants, and shrubs are no longer being shaded out by the woody growth of the sun-hungry midstory of trees that have overtaken the ecosystem.  The wildlife that once thrived there suddenly flush back in as if they were aware your endeavors.  Through careful planning and execution, prescribed fire can be the savior of the early successional lovers whom forage, reproduce, and bask in its glory.