burns are so useful that it should almost be a state holiday get groups of people together the first weeks of April and really staff up controlled burns

the issue being it is near impossible to schedule and getting people up to start a burn at 04:30 wouldn't be popular
you can get a lot more days of burning in if you start before the wind picks up and be done around 8:30 unless you have really good weather that day.

the more often you do it and better maintained the breaks are the better you could manage the burns

also doesn't help it is a really busy time of year all around

Our Game comm. just did a burn on a three year old clearcut here on Tuesday. I'm not sure why?

The timing I understand, before Deer drop their young and it's dry enough to burn but the why eludes me.

As others like Yessir can attest, there is a vibrant (and necessary) prescribed burn culture here in the Flint Hills. So far this season I think I've put in 12 days of burning involving at least 17 different fires. Probably only 3-5 burn days remaining until our goals are met, just waiting on the right weather. Nothing feels more like Spring to me than the smell of smoke in the air and that special hue of sunlight as it filters through the haze of smoke, and nothing is more important for preserving both the tallgrass prairie landscape and the rural agricultural communities that live in it. Flame on!

I wish I'd have played more attention to what my grandad told me years ago. He said several time that back in the day they'd set the mountain on fire to bring on the Huckleberries.

Lots of old charred stumps in that area.

To regenerate/keep the clearcut at a new growth condition....with new, tender growth....for increased browse quality.

Do you think they'll keep this an open area? Open as in brush, not trees?

They burnt another clearcut close by about two years ago and its now thicker than hair on a dogs back.

Most likely the burn was to maintain those clearcuts in a new growth stage.....burn every 2 to 3 years.

Thanks, if I remember? I'll update in a couple years if that's what they're doing.

No promises tho, I have a good memory, its just short!

I burned the grasslands Monday.
Was a little on the windy side, had to pretty much back burn it all.

Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday I burned the woods.
Even in the woods with all the wind it really helped. Back burning worked best tho.

Might do some more burning next week.

Alot more people ought to burn their woods in the midwest. It all used to be burned by the Indians pretty much every fall.

We start as soon as quail season ends…Feb 28.
We had the front half of the plantation done before April.
They were select cutting 2 courses on the back half, so we probably won’t burn that due to the vegetation knocked down by the loggers.
We still have one course that’s mainly wiregrass to do. We wait later (mid April) because it keeps the Wiregrass standing longer during quail season. When it dies it lays over real bad. Although that’s now too bad because under that is green grasses.
We have 40+ miles of feed trails throughout the plantation and they loop around back towards each other throughout each course.
This year we burned outside the feed trails. Next year we’ll burn inside the feed trails. This way there is always cover next to each feed trail for the quail. Areas we don’t hunt are blocked off into smaller sections and alternate burning is done on those. We always leave more cover than burned areas.
Just hoping for another banner hatch of quail and turkeys this year. I have never seen as many turkeys as I’ve seen this year. The amount of jakes is almost disturbing, lol. Even with all the jakes, the gobblers have kept them in check. Recently watched a gobbler whip three at one fight.
Habitat is the ticket and controlled burns really help that. Trapping, definitely helps when you have the habitat to support the ground nesters!!

One bit of advice I'd give anyone that's thinking of burning is you better know what your doing or have someone who does help you. A lot of people think they can handle it and those are the ones that usually cause the problems. That and have the equipment to handle it if things don't go perfectly. I don't know everyone's situation but around here back burning the whole thing is a novice move and usually causes more problems than doing it right, with the right equipment and personal. The 5% are the ones that cause the need for more rules and restrictions for the other 95%

Yes, it is a bad situation & appears to be proving why controlled burns rarely happen in Wi anymore. This is the biggest forest fire I've ever seen in Wi. I guess the Feds can do a prescribed burn even during red flag warnings.

Yep...set a head fire, or even spot fires too far ahead in heavy fuels, thinking it can be contained and you better have a big pocketbook and a good attorney.

Once its unleashed you can't put it back in that drip torch.....

....ya need to know what you're doing based on the current conditions and be mindful of what could happen with a sudden change of wind.

DO NOT get in a hurry and try to rush it, when all seems to be going good, and string too much fire.

Down here in this southern rough once its out of control it is BAD!!!!

Hire a professional to control burn, if needed.

they do quite a bit of burning down hear by the state line , many people doing sections of prairie

was out for a drive and there where quite a few hills , ditches , fields and fence rows burnt

there tend to be a lot of plowed fields or green hay fields to keep it from spreading bad , a couple got away form people seems like mostly when they try burning too late in the day I seldom hear sirens in the morning

With any burning there is a risk but in light flashy fuels in the Spring the risk is short-lived. I burned a little today around the snow drifts and under the pines. There are very few eco-systems that don't benefit from a properly conducted burn.

When a prescribed burn gets out of hand, the fed just says that it worked better than they thought it would…in all honesty, no one in their right mind should have been burning yesterday! Today too, for that matter. Perfect wildfire conditions!!

X2.

When are those government folks ever going to move on from Covid? I don't think they ever want it to be over, they might have to go back to work.

https://www.weau.com/2023/04/21/fort-mccoy-you-may-have-compensable-claim-due-april-12-fire/

Hopefully those filing a claim are treated fairly. For those folks that care deeply about their wildland, it would be hard to put a price tag on the damage (and others might not understand what the damage means to the landowner). Some things might not be noticed right away, either, as I imagine some trees might not die instantly, the firefighting methods could cause oak wilt, the suppression efforts could spread invasive seeds, etc. I wonder how often landowners come out treated fairly. There's people out there that think it's no big deal to a landowner as long as no structure burned and no one got hurt.