The Virtue of Prescribed Burns
BY Herschel Smith
1 day, 7 hours ago
I’ve remarked before about the virtue and even necessity of controlled – managed – prescribed burns. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for other things too.
Adams says the location had a lot to do with the number of ticks swarming the deer carcass. The animal came from an area of Oklahoma with dense vegetation and no recent prescribed fire, which can create a perfect storm for ticks.
“This region tends to produce deer with heavier parasite loads,” Adams says. “But this was an extreme case, even for there.”
[ … ]
“Young fawns don’t move much. That’s their survival mechanism,” Adams says. “In areas that have lots of ticks, they will just cover the fawns. They’ll be all around their eyes, nose, and mouth. In those cases, ticks can actually kill fawns.”
[ … ]
Ongoing research from Craig Harper at the University of Tennessee is exploring how prescribed burning can impact tick populations. Early findings suggest that fire could be an effective tool for reducing ticks, in addition to its known benefits for habitat and forage.
On July 21, 2025 at 7:37 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
If human beings are going to interrupt the naturally-occurring cycles of fire-and-renewal which happen routinely in the natural world, the next best thing is doing controlled burns. Provided they are done properly and in accordance with the particular ecosystem in question.
Two natural systems with fire as a naturally-occurring part of their ecology are tall-grass prairies and coniferous/boreal forests.
Out on the prairie, it is common to see controlled burns as farmers prepare their fields for the next cycle of planting. They also occur naturally, mostly due to lightning strikes, but also due to human carelessness as well.
As a young man, I did field research in Canada and N. Minnesota investigating fire and regeneration patterns in the forests of the region. Primarily old-growth red and white pine, but other systems as well found in Boundary Waters Canoe Area, MN, USA and in Quatico Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.
Red and white pine forests absolutely depend upon periodic fires to thrive; it is part of their ecology, of their life cycle.
Before humans in primordial times, lightning strikes caused the fires which happened in these stands. When enough detritus, dry foliage, duff/needles and other flammable debris accumulated on the forest floor and immediately above it, a lightning strike could ignite a fire. Typically, these blazes were small-enough that they lacked the fuel and duration to become hot-enough to burn through the thick bark on mature red and white pine trees.
Mature red and white pine trees rely upon high heat to release the seeds from their cones. Timed properly, the seeds drop into the nutritive ash and combustion byproducts produced by the forest floor fire. An ideal environment in which to germinate and mature.
This explanation is somewhat simplified but that’s the general process. If you have seen new growth coming in after a forest fire, you are familiar with the dynamic. This cycle of growth-decay-fire-and-renewal is natural and has been going on for eons.
Many modern environmentalists, out of zealotry or ignorance, have demanded that there be no fires at all in the nation’s forests. This stance flies flatly in the face of years and years of science showing otherwise. If you tamper with the cycle/pattern above by removing fire from the sequence of events, you will – perhaps inadvertently, but none the same – create conditions for a much larger and more-damaging conflagration.
It is very simple, really: If too much flammable under-story debris accumulates, when a spark finally does hit it, the result is going to be a very hot, very large fire which will consume everything in its path. Including all of the old-growth evergreens that so many of us love.
Indeed, if the conflagration is strong-enough, it may create a so-called “fire storm,” not unlike what happened after someWW2 heavy bomber raids.
The natural cycle works best, but if that isn’t possible for some reason, then sound resource management – including controlled burns – is the best best outcome for maintaining the nation’s forests.
Done properly and with an eye toward sustainability, logging and other harvesting of wood can be a part of this process.
On July 21, 2025 at 8:53 pm, Latigo Morgan said:
In New Mexico, the Forest Service waits until the late spring when it is windy and dry to do controlled burns. Lots of people have lost their homes because of their controlled burns getting out of control more often than not.