Saturday, March 31, 2007

Prescribed Burning, Another Habitat Improvment Tool



I recently encountered employees of the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Department of Conservation & Natural Resources conducting prescribed burns on a local Game Lands.

Fire is a valuable tool in the tool box of wildlife habitat professionals. Its use quickly reduces the available fuel load, greatly reducing the threat of wild fires. When burning dry grasses such as this the fire becomes very hot extremely quickly and only burns for a few minutes. In its aftermath a fine ash covers the ground, a layer of fertilizer which will soon encourage lush new growth.

It was very evident from watching this crew work that they are professionals who understand the nature of fire as they controlled it so well that at no time was there even a remote chance of it spreading beyond the intended area.

9 comments:

  1. I am thankful this is a "controlled" burn as so many fires end up killing a lot of things like box turtles, baby snakes and birds as well as a lot of seed and seedlings. Anyway this looks good and the photo is striking.

    Thanks for your visit to my 720 pixels blog and your comment about the picture taken in 1953 vs the one takes in 2007. I answered you back there about the mold.

    Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Let's try this again, it didn't let me post this before.

    Good image and article.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dad said he was one of the "wildlife habitat professionals" at the burn. I never thought of him like that, but I guess that's what he is!

    Good luck with your calendar submissions; I would love to have a future edition on my wall with two family connections to the photographers!

    This is a striking image, I second Mr. Lincoln's comments on that :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Now that time it worked (above) so I'll say that I appreciate you coming by my blog today. I had just read recently about wood ash being a wonderful amendment to garden soil and your post today reinforces that.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Striking is my comment word too. The picture tells the whole story. I loved it enlarged so I could see the detail and almost feel the fire burning.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, Bald Eagle!!! Here I am looking for a Turkey Buzzard or a Vulture to photograph. An elusive creature. No luck yet.

    Thanks for your visits and comments. They are fodder for my imagination.

    Brookville Daily Photo
    720 pixels

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi SD, thanks for stopping by my blog and your nice comments! I have been here before, very good stuff here! ~Cyndie

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have been meaning to get a shot like this in Delta. The number of burns has been amazing, smoke rising everyplace, getting ready for the spring plant!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for taking the time to comment. I appreciate the visits and comments as long as the comments are respectful of others views and contain no profanity.

Thanks again
Coy