S.C. Forestry Commission - Prescribed Fire w/VIDEO

March 10 is getting late in fire season, meaning the daily temperatures are rising and prescribed fires will burn hotter than in winter. Growing season or summertime burns are an option, but most landowners are far more comfortable with a backing fire during cold weather. Nathan Rutherford with the Colleton Office of the Forestry Commission, 538-3708, called to tell me that they had my paperwork and were waiting on a south or easterly wind to burn Snipe HIll. Since our family farm is a Certified S.C. Forestry Commission Stewardship Forest - we planned on following the management plan as they drew up, calling for prescribed fire every other year. Rutherford told me that Colleton County had almost 4,000 acres in applications this burning season, which demonstrates the popularity of this conservation management technique. From managers Calvin Bailey and Pete Stuckey, to Fire Boss Michael Crosby and their heavy equipment operators, the forestry commission team is busy during winter. With the weather registering a Category Four burning day (very good) and humidity registering 44 percent (fairly low), drip torches were employed to set test fires and back fires. After making sure that my existing firebreaks were freshly tended, the fire crew set spot fires and flanking fires to take advantage of the light winds - thus creating a hot fire that burned clean the understory of the forest. Prescribed fire provides a higher quality wildlife habitat with the new growth and green-up that follows burning, and leaves pine trees with less competition so that they can grow bigger. Smoke dispersion is always a concern, but this hot fire sent the smoke up into the atmosphere and it quickly disappeared. My video shows how a firebreak and a road are used as baselines during a controled burn - using the wind to keep the smoke off the road. My photos show Micahel Crosby using the torch on the back of his four-wheeler, signs of conservation, a string of prescibed fire entering the woods, and the smoke from a woods fire dispersing into the atmosphere.