John W. Monroe, ACF has acquired the designation of Certified Burner to provide Prescribed Burning of client's lands managed by Monroe Timberland Consultants (MTC).                                                 

According to Monroe, "This prescribed fire will knock-back most of the young hardwood trees and remove the forest litter and logging slash. This will allow sunlight to reach the forest floor, encouraging the growth of  herbaceous plants for wildlife browse. The hardwood trees roots will not be killed, and will sprout later. A herbicide application of ARSENAL or CHOPPER herbicide (products of BASF) in late summer/fall will kill the hardwoods sprouts, roots & all. A burn thence every 2-5 years will maintain a grassy/herbaceous understory desirable to wildlife.  The pines will grow dramatically faster, too." 

A concern in doing the burn were the pockets of moderate-to-moderately-high forest fuel present.  A test fire was first set to watch the behavior of the fire. With the test fire burning satisfactory, a backing fire was set along the baseline using a drip torch (photo #1). As the sun began to set, the base line had been extended the entire length of the property (photo #2).

The crew incorporated a technique called strip-heading (photo #3 & #4).

The backing fire moved across property into the wind, occasionally creating a hot spot where there was a high concentration of fuel (photo #5).

By 11:15 pm the fire was nearing the contol line, so a strip-heading fire was set to meet the backing fire (photo #6).

Before Fire:

 After Fire:

If you are interested in having a prescribed burn performed on your land, contact us @ 919-676-9807 or john@monroetimberland.com