Wildland firefighters, farmers before them, and Native Americans before farmers have used controlled burns in the woods to rejuvenate a forest ecosystem by clearing the ground of dead vegetation and unwelcome species.
As more people build homes in woodsy locales, the process also protects lives and property because the small controlled burns prevent large, out-of-control wildfires later on.
Carbon in, oxygen out — that was one of the simple ways we first learned how trees and plants create oxygen that we breathe.
It would be understandable to jump to the conclusion that burning the woods, even in a controlled fire, reverses that beneficial exchange and releases all the stored-up carbon.
"It appears that prescribed burns can be an important piece of a climate change strategy" — Christine Wiedinmyer
But the truth is by clearing out the underbrush, controlled burns lit when conditions are just right for the flames to lay low and burn steady, reduce the chances of massive wildfires and protect large trees and the carbon locked inside the forest.
"It appears that prescribed burns can be an important piece of a climate change strategy," says Christine Wiedinmyer, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., and lead author of a study in the journal Environmental Science & Technology several years ago that was among the first to identify the concept.
"If we reintroduce fires into our ecosystems," Wiedinmyer told the National Science Foundation, "we may be able to protect larger trees and significantly reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere by major wildfires."
Forests have emerged as important factors in climate change. Trees store, or "sequester," significant amounts of carbon, enough to help offset the large amounts of carbon dioxide emitted by factories, the burning of fossil fuels for energy, and airplanes, cars, and cruise ships.
When trees burn down or die and decay, their carbon stores are returned to the atmosphere. It can take decades for forest regrowth to sequester the amount of carbon emitted in a single fire.
"When fire comes more frequently, it's less severe and causes lower tree mortality," said Matthew Hurteau of Northern Arizona University, the paper's co-author. "Fire protects trees by clearing out the fuel that builds up in the forest."
Keeping carbon sequestered
Suppressing real wildfires with controlled fire locks in — even increases — carbon in the soils of temperate forests, savannas, and grasslands.
Controlled burns leave behind a clean landscape for new grasses to spring forth, and while the trees may have some charred bark, the heat and flame are beneficial – necessary sometimes – for many of the seeds and animals that call trees home.
In contrast, the white-hot conditions of forest fires in woods that have not been allowed to burn naturally from time to time, or pared back with the help of controlled burns, emit substantial amounts of greenhouse gases and particulate matter into the atmosphere.
This contributes to climate change as trees and bushes burn to the ground, releasing the carbon stored within them. The global impact of forest fire emissions on greenhouse gases is significant.
The science is not yet perfect. Sometimes, the estimation of emissions from forest fires, including controlled burns, is too low. The ways to measure the carbon saved in a controlled burn versus the greenhouse gases lost in a raging wildfire are being perfected.
However, the growing body of research is proving that prescribed burns release less carbon dioxide than full-on wildfires, and that realization is one of the ways climatologists are now counting on helping keep the planet from warming faster than it already is.
Prepping for a dry spring
Controlled fires being overseen by the South Florida Water Management District will be held throughout this week in Glades County in the North Lake Okeechobee Restoration Project Area in Glades County. Smoke plumes may be visible north of State Road 78 and west of Buckhead Ridge.
The Florida Forest Service has issued permits for some farmers along U.S. 41 north of Lee County to burn piles of dead trees and other woody materials, which also send plumes of smoke aloft
Smaller fires are being set in the Everglades and surrounding forests again this month, in part so that when it gets so dry and so hot in the spring that even shadows are looking for shade, there will be less of a chance of a major wildfire.
This time of year, when there is still some moisture in the backwoods, yet it hasn’t been raining every day, conditions are perfect for professional firefighters to light a “controlled” or “prescribed” fire. And that prescription results in a woodsy fire smell and wildfire smoke - but not the kind to be worried about.
Type of Florida forests needing wildfire to thrive
“The burns follow a written prescription which outlines the defined fire treatment area, goals of the burn, specific weather conditions that are required, the tactics staff will use, and the resources that are required to conduct the burn,” said Chris Reed, a land manager with the South Florida Water Management District. “Additionally, a smoke management map is prepared to identify smoke-sensitive areas, which are places where smoke from prescribed fires is intolerable, like schools and hospitals.”
Those smaller blazes, lit on purpose by specially trained firefighters, are to clear out exotics and dead vegetation to keep the forest healthy. In many cases, wildfire is necessary for certain trees and shrubs to reproduce.
Naturally occurring fires caused by lightning once played a major role in forming and maintaining much of Florida’s pine lands, sandhills, scrub areas, prairies, and wetlands.
For a while, the thought was to put out every wildfire the second it starts to save the ever-growing number of homes and businesses throughout the state, but that just allowed woody fuels to build up so that the next fire in that same spot burned hotter and for longer than it otherwise would have.
Now, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Service uses prescribed fire techniques to improve and maintain habitats for deer, quail, turkey, and many other wildlife species.
Fire’s influence on Florida’s landscape is so vital to the survival of numerous plants and wildlife species that prescribed burning is one of the FWC’s most extensively applied habitat management practices.
Some of Florida’s rare, fire-adapted plants and animals that cannot thrive without fire include the red-cockaded woodpecker, fox squirrel, gopher tortoise, indigo snake, and Florida scrub-jay.
FWC firefighters even set a controlled burn in Lake Okeechobee.
The fire was set on the north side of Lake Okeechobee to clear out more than 200 acres of cattails previously treated with herbicides and some dead vegetation, both of which had piled up in the area.
Early this summer the Big Cypress National Preserve shut down all recreational uses including off-road vehicles, hiking, camping, hunting, and commercial activities for a series of prescribed fires.
“A prescribed fire is one of Big Cypress’s best tools to help create a mosaic of diverse habitats, manage for our endangered species, and reduce the threat of a destructive wildfire,” a statement issued by the park said. “Prescribed fire is a carefully planned fire that uses fire science and specific environmental conditions to meet management goals for the preserve.”
Most state environmental agencies in charge of public lands, and federal branches of national environmental agencies such as the U.S. Park Service, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the U.S.D.A. manage its lands in Florida, at least in part, with controlled burns.
Burn tech
Native Americans perfected the use of fire in the woods over thousands of years to rejuvenate the land for farming and hunting while clearing acreage.
Then, about 100 years ago, controlled burns were set by whichever farmer got there first with a kitchen match handy. Usually, it was the one on a horse.
After far too many controlled burns escaped and became full-fledged wildfires, it became clear the practice of torching the woods must become the art of prescribed fire.
Led by the Florida Forest Service, already certified wildland firefighters who want to become controlled burn masters attend additional training to learn the precise degrees of wind, humidity, fuel type, rain chance, and a slew of other meteorological concerns that must be in place before the controlled burn can be lit — and when conditions are wrong for one.
Previous wildfire news:
- Firefighters using controlled burn to slow wildfire
- Wildfire's benefits for the Florida forest
- Wildfire threat gets real as drought conditions persist
- Wildfire season gets active in Southwest Florida
- Live: Keetch-Byram Drought Index in Florida
- Massive paycut for wildland firefighters is off ... for now
In addition, many wildland firefighters also specially trained for controlled burns are stationed around the area with firefighting equipment ready to put out any spot fire started by embers blown out of the boundaries by a gust of wind, or the updrafts caused by the heat of the blaze.
Even lighting the controlled burn has advanced greatly from a cowboy throwing a lit Diamond Match into the dry brush.
A drip torch does exactly what it sounds like it does: as a firefighter moves along the line to be lit he or she turns upside-down a metal container of a mix of fuels that looks like a watering can, but instead drops dollops of fire to the ground. If lucky, the firefighters are riding along in an ATV because it gets hot and that first “drip line” is often a long one.
Sometimes, firefighters have to use a flamethrower of sorts, mounted on an ATV, truck, swamp buggy, or airboat to ignite a controlled burn.
There are even situations when, to start a controlled burn or help stop an out-of-control wildfire, helicopters or drones are laden with what sort of look like hollow golf balls filled with a chemical mixture that's dropped or shot out of the aircraft by a launcher of sorts. When it hits the ground it very gently goes ablaze, melts, and coats the underbrush with a sticky goo that’s on fire.
Florida’s a model
Wildfires only became a problem when people began building homes in woodsy subdivisions. That, and when the policy was to put out every wildland blaze as fast as possible, not knowing what didn't burn then would build up and create a much larger wildfire someday.
The Sunshine State’s prescribed burn program has gained such a reputation for clearing out forests for healthy regrowth without (usually) losing control of the fire, that wildfire-ravaged states like California have been turning the Florida fire managers for advice.
California and Florida face significant wildfire threats, albeit under different conditions.
California battles wildfires frequently due to its Mediterranean climate, Santa Ana winds, and dry summers. Florida, with its subtropical climate, faces wildfires particularly during its dry season and due to factors like lightning.
Of course, wildfires are not just a problem in these two states. As climate change heats up the planet, dries out some forests, and changes some rain patterns to drop less water, President Joe Biden asked a committee to look into how to better fight the massive wildfires that have been popping up with increasing regularity.
“The risk of catastrophic wildfires is growing at alarming rates in the West and the South,” wrote the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in “Modernizing Wildland Firefighting to Protect Our Firefighters” and submitted into Biden earlier this year. “The linchpin of our country’s effort to combat wildfires is a dedicated corps of tens of thousands of state and federal wildland firefighters, who risk their lives to defend over 1.5 billion acres of fire-prone land in the United States.”
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a non-profit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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