Wildland Forestry & Environmental, Inc

When your land is your life.

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PRESCRIBED FIRE OVERVIEW                                                             Go to RxFire Pg.2
During the last 20 years, there has been a concerted effort by agencies, landowners, and conservation groups to reintroduce fire to the landscape.  After almost two centuries of fire exclusion, land managers are again utilizing prescribed fire for wildlife habitat improvement, forest health management, and ecosystem rehabilitation.  See the links page for more resources.
 
Wildlife Habitat Improvement 
There are countless reasons why fire is such a beneficial practice for wildlife managment.  Most importantly, fire produces conditions that no other regime can match.  Surprisingly, the cost of prescribed fire is often less than other implementation methods and results often show up more quickly.  Northern bobwhites typically prosper with a 2 or 3 year rotation, while Eastern wild turkeys and whitetail deer are favored with rotations of 4 or 5 years.  Additionally, the benefits spill over to a variety of non-game species.
Forest Management 
Wildfire is no longer a remote threat to piedmont timber stands.  Accumulated fuels, close proximity to urban populations, and current climatic conditions all create risks for pine stands.  Our normal season for conducting hazard reduction burns is November through March.  These burns are ideal for stands that are young or have been recently thinned.  Silvicultural burns can be done during any of the growing season months depending on site conditions, but September and October often produce the best results in terms of  competition control.  Ideally, growing season burns are best suited to semi-mature stands that have had at least one hazard reduction burn at some point in the rotation.
 
 
 
 
Ecosystem Rehabilitation & Species Recovery  
Biologists have barely scratched the surface in terms of knowing what plant and animal species require some type of fire regime for their survival.  Red-cockaded woodpeckers, longleaf pine,  and the piedmont
prairie community are just a few examples.  The list is growing rapidly.  Burns conducted in order to promote single species or specific communities often require extensive planning and require unique conditions because of the desire for fire to resemble a natural process.
 OUR PRESCRIBED BURNING SERVICES
Every effort is made to ensure that a prescribed fire is implemented safely and effectively on your property.  However, fire can be a very complex phenomenom, often exhibiting "patches" of higher intensity in some areas that appear to be completely uniform in terms of fuels.  For the landowner that has never had fire on their land, the process can sometimes be scary and the immediate appearance can sometimes look destructive.  Blackened tree bark, scorched needles on lower branches, dead saplings, and exposed soils are just a few of the characteristics that may be present for the first few weeks following a burn.  Please consider that fire is natural process that sometimes requires multiple introductions for objective achievement.  Please contact us with questions and concerns prior to planning a burn.
 
 LANDOWNER HELPER PROGRAM & EQUIPMENT RENTAL      NEW!
Sometimes a landowner may want to burn their own land, but may not have the equipment or knowledge necessary to   begin a safe burning program.  For a fee that is much less than our acreage rates, one of our burn bosses can be hired strictly as a consultant to help with your first burn.  We will aid you  in developing a burn plan, obtain the proper permits, and even loan equipment to you for a day.  Instruction on fireline placement, equipment use, and firing techniques are all included.  This is a special service and will require notice well in advance.  Limited availability.  It is strongly encouraged that you take the NC DFR Certified Burner course.
 
We also will rent drip torches, rakes, and portable pumping units by the week.  Call for pricing.