Controlled Burns

My mom is pretty awesome. She used to pack me bagged lunches for school. She gives really nice hugs.

But my mom isn't just awesome for being my awesome mom.

Mom also happens to be the director of the Nature Conservancy's Shawangunk Ridge Program. Which mean that Mom gets to oversee all the controlled burns that happen on the ridge.

A controlled or prescribed burn happens when a piece of land has hit a point of so much over-growth that it begins to become a danger to itself. Imagine a New England forest. There's a lot of leaf litter and downed branches and trees. All perfect fuel for a forest fire.

Note: Prescribed burns can also be used in farming, prairie restoration, etc. I am more familiar with it as a tool in forest management and thus will be talking about that rather than the other methods mentioned.

Forest fires are a natural part of forest ecology. However when humans began building homes in and close to a forest it only made sense to try to reduce the number of forest fires that happened. Less forest fires meant less property damage, less money lost, and less of a threat to human lives. It made sense.

But less naturally occurring forest fires meant that when they do occur, they are larger and have more fuel to burn meaning they are harder to control. The solution that makes the most sense then, is to have controlled burns.

It's easy to understand why some people might find this counter intuitive. Many a time my mom has had to answer to cries of "carbon dioxide!" and "you're killing trees!" The answer to these cries is relatively simple.

1. One controlled burn is going to a lot less damage in terms of carbon dioxide than one forest fire.
2. The trees can handle it. They're built to do so naturally and once again, one forest fire would do a lot more damage to them than a controlled burn.

To give comparison of a controlled burn to a actual forest fire here are some pictures:

Controlled burn

Forest fire

Controlled burn, the fire fighters are in control of the situation

Forest fire, there are so many ways it can go wrong

Controlled burn, the trees are barely charred, and there is room for regeneration of diverse plant life while maintaining what has taken years to grow

Forest fire, same effects but it will take a lot longer for the trees to come back. They will survive. The bottom photo is from Texas after a fire. We stopped forest fires to the human advantage but when we can't stop them what do we lose?

I will say however that controlled burns are not always the best medicine. There are places where there are factors that make it impossible to do a controlled burn. Even on the Ridge, wind speed and velocity, temperature, and rainfall all make a play into whether or not my mom will call off a controlled burn because a controlled burn under the wrong circumstances can get out of control.

Doctor's Warning?

Use with caution.