10/21/09, 08:44 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: The Heart of Dixie
Posts: 2,031
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Around here, the pine seedfall is in late October and early November. Folks who want to naturally regenerate pines burn just prior to that so the pine seeds will have a much better chance to germinate by getting through all that ground litter which has been turned to ash. An added benefit is that burning will kill the hardwood brush as well, and pine saplings are much more resistant to fire so if the bud at the top of the tree isn't burnt out, more than likely the pine tree will survive it. That helps add some browse for deer but not as effective in the current year as a late winter or early spring.
You can control the amount of heat your burn generates by the type of weather and the hour of the day that you burn in. A hot day with low humidity and a fire set with the wind behind it will produce the most heat. Actually few folks burn in those conditions as it kills most everything out there. If you do it then, make sure you have some firebreaks plowed around the area and make sure the winds isn't very high at all.
A really good way and it's the method I've used over the years to create browse is to burn at night. The humidity is usually much higher at night and I set the fire so that it BACKS into the wind, not running with the wind. That way the fire is a cool fire and it slowly backs across the area with little damage to the standing timber. It targets mostly the ground litter and the smaller underbrush. The fire is much easier to control as well. No running around trying to get ahead of a fire that has jumped the fire lanes around the area.
If the area in question is a really thick tangle of underbrush and blowdowns etc., you may have to get you some help the first year and put a hot fire through there. Then, in years after that, you can use a backfire to keep all the new junk burnt away. Fire is definitely a tool that if handled well, can just about make your place look any way you want it to.
The forestry comission around here provides help in creating plowed fire lanes for a cost only fee and a permit is required, but then they know when you're burning and if the fire gets out they're on the way with just a phone call and they know where to go.
Note: Anyone from California, please disregard any of that information. I would not advise you to go burning anything out there. Those arid regions of the west are tinderboxes and I'm not sure that any form of control burning is even legal.
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