Video about prescribed fire in the pine rocklands (11 min. with closed-captions).
- Credit/ Author:
- Jennifer Brown
- Date created:
- 2010-03-05
Fire Management Officer: Because we have a million flammable acres right here in South Florida…
And, we have a lot of resources both in terms of natural resources, visitor resources, economic activities outside the park…
And, given the place is that flammable as it is, the park service needs to have a concerted, coordinated staff and effort to manage fire on this ecosystem.
You know, managing fire in the modern landscape, we have to consider much more than our forefathers did or the Native Americans that came before us.
So, one of the reasons why we think about fire and we apply fire here, is to really supplement fire’s role here.
And, we do it at a time of our choosing as much as possible.
Of course, we have no control when we get lightning.
But, with prescribed fire and the fires that we light, we can do it at a time of year where it is advantageous to us.
In other words, this place is going to burn whether we do it or not, so lets try to choose the times that work for a multiple of objectives:
Whether they are wildlife objectives, hazard objectives to reduce the risk of unwanted fires.
Fire Dispatcher: Temperature is 65 degrees, relative humidity 58%, winds 10 mph from the north-northwest with gusts to 19.
Firefighter: Good morning, thanks to everybody for being out here and participating on this burn.
I am the burn boss trainee.
Roger is the official burn boss.
This unit here is called the Boy Scout Camp.
It is approximately 100 acres in size.
Firefighter: We usually do this in the shade.
Since it is cloudy out today, we don’t really have to worry about finding it.
When you get out on the prairie, there are no trees.
So, usually I bring an umbrella with me and I kind of look like Mary Poppins out there.
Filmmaker: And, you have to do this in the habitat?
That is why you came over here?
Yep, the habitat that you are going to burn so you get a good accurate reading.
It had good consumption.
Firefighter: I would say it is a successful test burn.
It is all about firing and holding.
Are you guys good with that?
Gary, lets sign off our go/no-go and we will proceed with our burn.
Why is it burning so good now?
Firefighter: Well, what we got, we got a wind.
And, we changed up our tactics: We went in behind instead of lighting off the shrub row which we wanted to do.
We came in behind and lit it and we are getting a push from the wind and it is pushing into these shrubs with more heat, better fire behavior, we are getting better consumption.
Is it killing those shrubs?
It is not going to kill them, shrubs are hard to kill, they will resprout but so be it.
We have gotten them down to that desirable height where it is going to allow a herbaceous layer to come in underneath them…
As opposed to before, that is all you had there was shrubs.
We have the perfect parameters, the weather, everything is staying in line with our prescription.
And, if you look out there, we’ve got real nice consumption of all the fuels, meaning, everything is not being totally consumed.
What we have already burned, there is pockets of unburned fuel so we are getting a mosaic pattern in the burn.
We are in the Boy Scout Camp.
Which is inside Everglades National Park.
It is one of the most beautiful stands of pine that we have here.
It gets frequent fire.
The wild flower pulse, as we say, was pretty incredible.
It was really beautiful to see the pinks, the yellows, the purples.
But, we see how robust this is and how green it is and we can see it in all the vegetation throughout.
We see the ash on the ground and we see tons of little seedlings, fresh new growth.
If we burnt the top of this Coontie off, there is so much, and this is where all the starch is located, beyond this crown.
There is so much of the plant underground.
It gets the nutrient pulse from the ash and it will just resprout.
You can tell right here where this was one of the fronds: It burned off.
These are the new ones that came back.
Over and over again…who knows how old this Coontie is.
Will it ever be killed by a fire?
Unlikely. Again, these plants are built to burn.
It has so much…because heat does not penetrate the soil very deeply.
And, how long does it take these plants to regenerate after a fire?
They start almost immediately.
When I am looking at fire, I am watching combustion at work, so to speak, and that physical process.
But also, you are watching an ancient process at work.
Watching a fire graze, so to speak, through the pinelands, depositing its ash and changing the landscape:
Opening it up for more sunlight, putting more nutrients down.
And, I know that there is going to be a beauty after this place is blackened.
The beauty I see is in the contrast that is stark difference between black and green.
It gives me that immediate sense of hope, renewal, change, continuity.
And, it just seems like this will go on forever: This birth and death in the Everglades.
I can observe, directly, that without fire, the pine rocklands are somewhat less of pine rocklands.
Fire is the blood of the pine rocklands.
When fire pulses through this landscape, the pine rocklands are alive.
And, that is how I know it is healthy.
