Fighting fire with fire (with photos)

A fire in the Blackwater River State Forest can be cause for ample alarm. But as several acres succumbed to the crackling flames skipping through the underbrush Tuesday morning, state foresters seemed contented. Paradoxically, said Joe Zwierzchowski, a mitigation specialist for the Division of Forestry, one of nature’s most destructive forces is also one of its most effective forest management tools when properly administered.

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Don’t believe him? Ask Craig Iversen, a forestry supervisor and forest ecologist. Better still, ask, if you could, any member of the rebounding population of red-cockaded woodpeckers in the Coldwater Recreation Area of the state forest.

“The red-cockaded woodpecker is our poster child for endangered species,” said Iversen. The threatened little bird’s population was rapidly decreasing through the 1980s, Iversen said. “One of the reasons was there was too much brushy understory,” the brush-filled grassy area of a forest from ground level to about a person’s waist.

“The birds’ recovery requires burning the understory on a frequent basis. It expands the habitat of the birds,” Iversen said, adding, “The red-cockaded woodpecker is rather particular about what kind of environment it prefers.”

Foresters have learned that controlled fires — what they called “prescribed burns” — solve many conundrums at minimal expense. It’s a handy tool for land and animal management as well as disease prevention, Zwierzchowski said.

“It’s environmentally friendly and economically sensible,” Zwierzchowski said. “It also helps recreate natural occurrences. One of the things prescribed fire does is help us manage wild fires.”

In northwest Florida, the biggest prescribed burn acreage is in Okaloosa County, especially on the Eglin Reservation, and in Santa Rosa County, said David Smith, the state forest’s operations administrator as well as a wildlands firefighter. Permits for any prescribed burns must be issued by the Forestry Division of the state Department of Agriculture, even for burns on federal or private land.

Rather than depending on lightening or careless humans to start fires, which can easily get out of control, prescribed burns are carefully managed, and factors such as weather conditions are considered. By removing fuel sources through managed burning, when lightening strikes, there’s less scrub on the forest floor to fuel a wildfire, the foresters said.

With a bulldozer and a brush truck — a fire truck specially adapted for wildland use — standing by, Rena’ Barnes, the forest area supervisor and head of the wildland firefighters brigade at Blackwater River State Forest, watched vigilantly as forest rangers Mike Kent and Mark Bauldree started the day’s prescribed burn. First they lit a small fire to observe the wind direction and burn conditions.

Satisfied, Kent started up a four-wheeled ATV that was fitted with a fire-starter system custom designed by Barnes’ crew. (It even has an “eject” mechanism that can jettison the device in the event it catches fire itself.) Fed by a mixture of diesel fuel and gasoline, a nozzle squirted small flaming droplets into the scrub, which, dried by the morning’s wind and sunshine, kindled immediately.

“A lot of misconception people have about fire is, ‘well, we had ten inches of rain yesterday,’” Barnes said. “But fire happens above the ground.”

An upwind strip of the area to be burned was torched first, following a dirt horse trail through the woods. The brush truck followed to assure the fire did not jump the firebreak formed by the trail.

As the first strip burned itself out, Bauldree took a hand-carried “drip torch” into the forest where its steady dribble of fire ignited the next section, about 20 feet downwind from the first strip. As its flames, propelled by a steady breeze, reached the scorched ground from the first strip, they flickered out and died. Kent and Bauldree followed this procedure, progressively working downwind from each previous strip.

Burning a section at a time keeps prescribed burns small and allows them to only clean up the understory brush. These fires have no opportunity to get so large they create more heat than trees and their roots can tolerate, a usual occurrence in a wildfire, Iversen said. Heat and flame stays low to the ground in a prescribed burn, and do not threaten the forest canopy.

Still, smoke rising out of a state forest, especially if there are homes, communities or farms nearby, is sometimes cause for residents’ concern if they’re unaware a prescribed burn is in progress. Moreover, TV news images of out-of-control forest fires in other parts of the country implant seeds of consternation.

“Many people have bad misconceptions of prescribed fire because of what they’ve seen on TV from wildfires,” Zwierzchowski said.

As more and more subdivisions encroach into areas that were previously forested, the “wildland-urban interface,” as rangers call it, increases. Forestry officials work closely with local fire departments to reduce the risk of wild fires threatening new homes.

By explaining to homeowners’ associations the benefits of clearing brush from around developments, foresters ease residents’ concerns, even if a prescribed burn is used in conjunction with equipment that clears away scrub, Zwierzchowski said. Teaching residents about fire risk is important, he added.

“There’s an educational portion, too. We’ve got to reach out to the kids,” Zwierzchowski said, citing the dangers of youngsters “experimenting” with fire. “Yes, this is probably what has been going on since the invention of matches, but there are penalties involved.”

“We have lots of fires and we have lots of young ‘uns who like to play with fire,” confirmed Barnes with a shake of her head.

“A brush fire can become a very large fire in a short amount of time,” said Smith.

All foresters agree, however, that a controlled, prescribed burn “is critical to maintaining some of this habitat,” Smith said. “The use of fire helps us maintain the eco-system here.”

“If fire didn’t do the trick, we’d have to resort to cutting by hand or mowing,” said Iversen, “but you can’t do that on 200,000 acres. Everything benefits from the burning program.”