..finally got time and conditions this past weekend to improve a few more acres of these piney woods..

Burn it down!

Don't do much of this in MN I presume?

They burn quite a bit of native prairie in state parks. Not much piney woods roundt my parts. Looks interesting. Nobody is ever bored when people are burning anything, you ever notice that?

The turkeys (and at least 1 turkey hunter) will appreciate it!
Fire in the right timing and conditions is an awesome wildlife management tool.

My dad used to burn the ditches every spring at the farm. That was always fun. My older sister had a huge wHite fluffy angora cat that somehow painted itself into a corner of two burning ditches. It didn't die but it was looked like a burnt marshmallow.

Lots of benefits to Rx fire in these southern pine woods. Reduce fuel load making threat of wildfire damage less, kill unwanted hardwoods and shrubs that will result in more sunlight reaching forest floor, scarify native seeds and expose soil so growth herbaceous vegatation can occur, control certain diseases in pines, makes the pine stands more attractive to deer, turkeys, quail, and many other species that are adapted to these southern pine forests.

A slow burning fire (backing into the wind) is the ideal fire so it will girdle the brush and small hardwood trees. A backing fire needs a constant low to moderate wind direction. Having many disked fire breaks on the property is key to maintaining control and keeping the process efficient.

A head fire will get exciting quickly even if there is not a lot of fuel. A wrong 5 mph wind will sometimes more than quadruple flame height instantly. One spot over and it's ON!

One of the Small Game management awards handed out annually by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission is a drip torch because of the many benefits of prescribed burns.

Lots of benefits for sure, but a huge liability as well in todays world, IMO.

Looks good, bringing new life to the ground. More folks need to burn IMO.

Yep. Smoke management makes me nervous. In areas with lots of residences Rx fires are too much.

Around here the DNR manages to burn something off by accident, that doesn't need it.

Very good prize. A drip torch is the best wildlife management tool, in the right hands, there is!

Most wildlife habitat needs it.....some people may not want it.

Indeed it does. Farmere here use to do a lot more of it. Every swamp needs it, and a good wild fire is alright once in a while. The last good one was the fire of 1910 up here .

"Good" as in major wildfire??

I just got a good burn on 30 acres by my house. Been needing to do it a few years and finally got it done. Turkeys will be back in those areas before the stumps stop smoking.

Yep...they will.

Looks very good. I would love to have some burning done but I don't have the know how. I would burn the country down. LOL

I have some rough country that has a lot of grass that hasn't been grazed with domestic animals since God was a boy and been that way since the first native walked this land. Wildlife graze it but it needs to be burned with all the old grass that is in there. I hold my breath each year I never have a wild fire go through there.

Snowy be happy with the grass. Every time a fire burns through more noxious weeds appear along with an abundance of thistle.

We burn a lot of native grass around here. Talk about a hot fire. Drip torches are worth every penny.

yup

Maybe your state forestry agency could give guidance or perform the service. They do here in Ga for a fee to those landowners/managers that don't want to or know how to do it themselves.

I looked at one property today and will look at another tomorrow where "the wind sorta come up on us" and now they are missing some property. I'm a little surprised by their comments as it was blowing a solid 15-20+ mph from day break to dawn, so I'm not sure how the wind could have "come up on us". Gotta love the 1st nice weekend around a full moon, but stuff happens...........

Idiots and unleashed fire do not mix!

A few years ago the wildlife branch of our dnr did a controlled burn, not very controlled and the fire damaged thousands of dollars worth of already sold timber. That logger was not pleased, and that gal in charge did not get fired over it.

Burning the row in the spring was one of my favorite jobs on the RR.