Matt65
01-14-2016, 20:36
Crews perform controlled burn in Talladega National Forest
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160115/2f2387e7ee3160cfddd728832cfc0568.jpg
http://m.annistonstar.com/news/crews-perform-controlled-burn-in-talladega-national-forest/article_fa32005c-bb15-11e5-9c09-a326ec4f7279.html?mode=jqm
By Kirsten Fiscus, Star Staff Writer, [email protected] | Updated 42 minutes ago
CLEBURNE COUNTY — At the corner of Forest Service Road 553 and 548 in the Talladega National Forest, 15 employees gathered Thursday for a safety meeting before setting out to complete the first big controlled burn of the year.
Blake Morris, the assistant fire management officer, reminded his employees to stay hydrated and check the weather and wind while working. At the end of the day, Morris’ crew planned to have burned nearly 1,500 acres of the forest.
“This is just a small part of what we burn each year,” he said. “At the end of the season we’ll have burned about 40,000.”
Each controlled burn takes months of planning, Morris said.
“When people hear of a controlled burn, they imagine a wildfire,” he said. “Each burn we do is carefully planned, and we can only operate within certain conditions.”
For each burn, crews have to map out the area, have the plan approved by the area officials and have to do prep burning if a helicopter will be used, Morris said.
“We also have to look at the weather,” he said. “It’s more wet than we would have hoped, but it’ll burn better as the sun gets higher.”
Blackened earth ran along the edges of the gravel road. Blacklines, as Morris called them, were burned in preparation for a helicopter trip.
“The helicopter will come out in a few weeks,” he said. “We burn these blacklines so the pilot can see the boundaries but also to keep the fire burning inwards.”
Smoke filled the valleys near Coleman Lake as crew members began burning their designated areas shortly before noon. Leigh Agan, a fuels technician, buckled on her protective gear over her flame-retardant clothing and picked up a tank filled with a mixture of gas and diesel fuel. Her assigned area would take her at least an hour to burn, Morris said.
The particular area Morris and his crew were tasked with burning is scheduled to be used for logging, he said.
“When an area is designated for logging, a company will have that land for several years,” Morris said. “We get in there before the company does so we don’t have to worry about leaving that land out of our rotation.”
The rotation Morris’ crew works on is scheduled to increase and cultivate the health of the forest, Morris said.
“It cuts down competition for the longleaf pine, which we are trying to restore,” he said. “It promotes habitats for threatened or endangered species, and it cuts down on brush that could start wildfires. If we burn it under our terms than we prevent it from burning under extreme conditions.”
Staff writer Kirsten Fiscus: 256-235-3563. On Twitter @kfiscus_star.
2016 Burn Map:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5270184.pdf
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/alabama/alerts-notices/?cid=stelprdb5270205
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160115/2f2387e7ee3160cfddd728832cfc0568.jpg
http://m.annistonstar.com/news/crews-perform-controlled-burn-in-talladega-national-forest/article_fa32005c-bb15-11e5-9c09-a326ec4f7279.html?mode=jqm
By Kirsten Fiscus, Star Staff Writer, [email protected] | Updated 42 minutes ago
CLEBURNE COUNTY — At the corner of Forest Service Road 553 and 548 in the Talladega National Forest, 15 employees gathered Thursday for a safety meeting before setting out to complete the first big controlled burn of the year.
Blake Morris, the assistant fire management officer, reminded his employees to stay hydrated and check the weather and wind while working. At the end of the day, Morris’ crew planned to have burned nearly 1,500 acres of the forest.
“This is just a small part of what we burn each year,” he said. “At the end of the season we’ll have burned about 40,000.”
Each controlled burn takes months of planning, Morris said.
“When people hear of a controlled burn, they imagine a wildfire,” he said. “Each burn we do is carefully planned, and we can only operate within certain conditions.”
For each burn, crews have to map out the area, have the plan approved by the area officials and have to do prep burning if a helicopter will be used, Morris said.
“We also have to look at the weather,” he said. “It’s more wet than we would have hoped, but it’ll burn better as the sun gets higher.”
Blackened earth ran along the edges of the gravel road. Blacklines, as Morris called them, were burned in preparation for a helicopter trip.
“The helicopter will come out in a few weeks,” he said. “We burn these blacklines so the pilot can see the boundaries but also to keep the fire burning inwards.”
Smoke filled the valleys near Coleman Lake as crew members began burning their designated areas shortly before noon. Leigh Agan, a fuels technician, buckled on her protective gear over her flame-retardant clothing and picked up a tank filled with a mixture of gas and diesel fuel. Her assigned area would take her at least an hour to burn, Morris said.
The particular area Morris and his crew were tasked with burning is scheduled to be used for logging, he said.
“When an area is designated for logging, a company will have that land for several years,” Morris said. “We get in there before the company does so we don’t have to worry about leaving that land out of our rotation.”
The rotation Morris’ crew works on is scheduled to increase and cultivate the health of the forest, Morris said.
“It cuts down competition for the longleaf pine, which we are trying to restore,” he said. “It promotes habitats for threatened or endangered species, and it cuts down on brush that could start wildfires. If we burn it under our terms than we prevent it from burning under extreme conditions.”
Staff writer Kirsten Fiscus: 256-235-3563. On Twitter @kfiscus_star.
2016 Burn Map:
http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5270184.pdf
http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/alabama/alerts-notices/?cid=stelprdb5270205