ANHC Stewardship staff members have participated this spring in cooperative prescribed burns with partner organizations, giving our staff additional opportunities to practice prescribed fire skills and learn new techniques.
A prescribed burn is the safe use of fire under specific conditions to achieve land management objectives. Land managers write a “prescription” of criteria that must be met before any burning can be done. The parameters of this prescription include weather, fuel types and amount, nearby manmade structures, and topography. Only a portion of a natural area or other property, called a unit, is burned during a prescribed burn.
ANHC staff members and staff from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) burned an 847-acre unit of the 6,181.85-acre Warren Prairie Natural Area (NA) earlier this month. TNC was the lead agency on this burn, which provided ANHC staff the chance to practice their prescribed fire skills on a large burn unit with a large burn crew.
Pictured above, left to right: ANHC Land Management Specialists Malinda Godwin, Ryan Spotts, and Emily Roberts working on the burn crew at Warren Prairie Natural Area during a cooperative burn.
An interesting fact about this cooperative burn that we’d like to share is that the majority of the burn crew members were women.
“In my 16-year career in fire, I do not recall a burn that was staffed with more females than males. It has been a very male-dominated profession,” Kyle Lapham, ANHC chief of Acquisitions and Stewardship, said. “However, six of the 11 on the burn were female.”
Three of those six female crew members included ANHC’s Land Management Specialists, Malinda Godwin, Emily Roberts, and Ryan Spotts.
The other cooperative burns occurred at Burns Park in North Little Rock and Rattlesnake Ridge NA. The Burns Park prescribed burn was conducted on approximately 250 acres (two burn units) in cooperation with the city of North Little Rock, the Arkansas Division of Forestry, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Arkansas Master Naturalists, Quail Forever, and TNC. The burn at Rattlesnake Ridge NA was conducted on approximately 90 acres in cooperation with TNC.
Pictured above: Crew members prepare for the cooperative burn at Rattlesnake Ridge NA
By conducting periodic prescribed burns, the likelihood of a destructive wildfire is lessened because the amount of fuel on the ground that will burn has been reduced. Prescribed fires can also help prepare the ground for planting or natural regeneration of seeds, remove any fire-intolerant plant species, control insect and plant diseases, and improve habitat for wildlife that is adapted to open or partially open habitats.
A prescribed burn is the safe use of fire under specific conditions to achieve land management objectives. Land managers write a “prescription” of criteria that must be met before any burning can be done. The parameters of this prescription include weather, fuel types and amount, nearby manmade structures, and topography. Only a portion of a natural area or other property, called a unit, is burned during a prescribed burn.
ANHC staff members and staff from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) burned an 847-acre unit of the 6,181.85-acre Warren Prairie Natural Area (NA) earlier this month. TNC was the lead agency on this burn, which provided ANHC staff the chance to practice their prescribed fire skills on a large burn unit with a large burn crew.
Pictured above, left to right: ANHC Land Management Specialists Malinda Godwin, Ryan Spotts, and Emily Roberts working on the burn crew at Warren Prairie Natural Area during a cooperative burn.
An interesting fact about this cooperative burn that we’d like to share is that the majority of the burn crew members were women.
“In my 16-year career in fire, I do not recall a burn that was staffed with more females than males. It has been a very male-dominated profession,” Kyle Lapham, ANHC chief of Acquisitions and Stewardship, said. “However, six of the 11 on the burn were female.”
Three of those six female crew members included ANHC’s Land Management Specialists, Malinda Godwin, Emily Roberts, and Ryan Spotts.
The other cooperative burns occurred at Burns Park in North Little Rock and Rattlesnake Ridge NA. The Burns Park prescribed burn was conducted on approximately 250 acres (two burn units) in cooperation with the city of North Little Rock, the Arkansas Division of Forestry, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Arkansas Master Naturalists, Quail Forever, and TNC. The burn at Rattlesnake Ridge NA was conducted on approximately 90 acres in cooperation with TNC.
Pictured above: Crew members prepare for the cooperative burn at Rattlesnake Ridge NA
By conducting periodic prescribed burns, the likelihood of a destructive wildfire is lessened because the amount of fuel on the ground that will burn has been reduced. Prescribed fires can also help prepare the ground for planting or natural regeneration of seeds, remove any fire-intolerant plant species, control insect and plant diseases, and improve habitat for wildlife that is adapted to open or partially open habitats.