Burning a Prairie

[RobS]

I'm mentally preparing to burn our pseudo-prairie. It's about four acres and is just beginning to show some woody growth which I want to discourage. My sister has a much more mature five acre prairie that they burn every year. I've got two main concerns: Naturally, I don't want the fire to get beyond my prairie but I'm also concerned that it won't burn at all as it's just not that thick yet.

If it doesn't burn, I'll just forget about it so that takes me back to the primary concern. No real concern about the house as it's across the driveway. Plenty of space to neighbors and the street area too. In the fall I cut a couple of passes around the perimeter very short and ran over that same perimeter with my landscape rake just yesterday. My plan is to have some buds over with rakes. I'll have a long hose from the house available and a 55 gallon drum on water on the back of my truck. All adjoining areas are turfgrass, pretty thin. I talked to a fireman friend the other day and he didn't seem concerned. No permits required in our township. Of course we'll have phones available. We've had some rain lately, so it's not bone dry and I'll make sure the wind is calm. I'm thinking we'll start in a corner and move in opposite directions (two teams) staying with the fire. We'll meet up on the other side of the field.

Any words of wisdom? Anyone done this before?

 

[goaliedad]

I am a big fan of burning, but ( with age ) have gotten much aware of the safety issues. First- I would check with the DNR about burning permits just to be sure. Next, would it be possible to divide the area into smaller sections. Cut a break in the middle so you are containing the fire in a workable area? In the past I was involved with burning a small patch of cat-tails and was shocked at how fast the fire moved. Good luck.

 

[Panache]

Light from the downwind side first. It is called a backburn. I burn 3 acres every year now and will be burning about 10 more per year starting next year. pump up yard sprayers work good as does a 15 gal electric sprayer.

 

[TC18guy]

Even though we had the big rain a few weeks ago, it is still pretty dry. I've heard about a few good grass fires lately. A guy here at work was burning garbage in his burn barrel a few weeks back. He went in the house to do some work and it wasn't too long and a neighbor come knocking on the door. He had a pretty good grass fire going. I think I'd just try to keep it small and controllable.

 

[Jimbrown]

Akkk!!! look out the guy over on Country By Net says you are poisoning the world.

 

[LBrown59]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Akkk!!! look out the guy over on Country By Net says you are poisoning the world. )</font>

Who's that?

 

[scott_vt]

Hi Rob,
It sounds like youve got all the bases covered to some extent anyways. My only input would be to watch the amount of wind you have at that point. As a volunteer fireman I have seen some real small brush fires turn ugly real quick with the right amount of wind in dry conditions! Also what are surrounding properties like as far as amount of burnable fuel? A few airborn sparks could make you have a bad day rather quickly /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

scotty

 

[RobertN]

As another Volunteer FF checking in, maybe check with your local Fire Dept to see if they want in on the action.

This would be an opportunity to get some training and practice in before(at least here...) wildland season starts. It's an opportunity to cut some hand lines, run a couple wet lines, practice a progressive hoselay, packing hose packs and all that fun stuff. That might even get you an Engine or water tender out there on standby...

 

[scott_vt]

Excellent point Robert ! Could turn into a fun day and no stress of the fire getting away from you!!!

scotty

 

[Jimbrown]

Look for "Burns my *ss"

 

[RobS]

Thanks guys, lots of good input. I'm now juggling my work schedule, home schedule, friends schedules and the weather to figure out when to do this. I may try a small area for practice, that's a good suggestion. I'll see one of the volunteer firefighters this evening and ask about their interest.

And I guess I'll have to check out CBN as well /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[froggy]

If they agree to help you with the burning, you may want to give them a donation, too.

When the VFD put out a fire that started on my old place in Somervell County, I made a substantial donation afterwards. They use the funds for training.

 

[RobertN]

We would do it just for the training. Pizza and gatorade does help though /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

In our area, our district and a couple districts around us look for places to do this in the spring, as a practice run for wildland season. We usually get 10-15 engines out of local stations(paid and volunteer staff). It works well for us, because we train with our crews, but also get to work cross agency. We also train monthly as single engine companies too.

 

[Panache]

Does the Mich Dept of Forests (or wWhat ever there are called in your area) have a fire web site? Alabama does and it gives great forcasts about 2 days out.

 

[TC18guy]

It would be MDNR or MDEQ. both have websites at www.michigan.gov. I've heard the DNR issue warnings during extreme dry spells, but not of regular forecasts. Couldn't hurt to check.

 

[RobS]

Finally had decent conditions this evening to try a prairie burn. It's been dry the last couple of days, light winds and I was home for a change! Of course, my biggest concern was not burning something I shouldn't have and that turned out to be no problem. My second concern was that it wouldn't burn and that became the bigger problem.

Started in one corner where it would burn into the breeze. That seemed the safest but it didn't get very far. Decided to try the opposite corner and that worked OK. Here's a pic /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[RobS]

The fire burned very slowly and quite controllably. This of course, was good. Every now and then, it would hit a clump of little bluestem grass and blaze up nicely /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[RobS]

In fact, it burned slowly enough that we could enjoy a glass of wine and I could take some pictures. We're having cooler than normal temperatures so the flames felt good. My prep work along the edges with my landscape rake paid off as the fire kept itself contained with little or no effort on our parts /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[RobS]

Eventually though, it was getting late and we could tell it wasn't going to burn the entire area any time soon. We put it out with rakes, which was good practice. Here's one final shot. I'll take a blackened picture in the morning when I can see for myself how much of it burned /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[RobS]

Finished the burn this morning. It went much better today, might have been the breeze it needed to keep going. It was remarkable easy to keep confined to the field though I'll not get complacent for future burns.

Here's a shot from my favorite window in the house /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif