Last Friday was our annual "Burn Day," the day I burn much of my farm for the benefit of wild game. Of all the things I do each year to manage my place, none has the overall benefit and far reaching impact of a good early spring burn.

Burning has several significant benefits for wildlife. It helps control the growth of unwanted hardwoods that can take over a forest, it removes the ground cover so that grasses and other food sources can grow for the benefit of a wide variety of wild game such as deer, quail, and turkeys, and it decreases the fuel on the ground that could cause a wildfire from causing severe timber damage (a thought process that seems foreign to certain parts of California and our National Park system ).

It's also amazing to see how quickly wildlife adapts to a forest after a controlled burn. On the morning after our burn, I already saw deer back in burned timbered areas.

Anyway, I took some pictures during the burn that turned out very interesting. As you'll see, the fires lasted well into the night. Hope you enjoy them!

When does the quail & turkey nesting season take place in your state?

Spread the word fire is good for the forest and wildlife.

Norseman,
Turkey nesting here usually begins in late April or early May. Our 7 week turkey season opens this coming Saturday. As for quail, nesting begins in May and June with a second hatch sometimes taking place later in the summer.
I rotate the areas of my farm that I burn to protect nesting areas for the birds.
The manager of nearby Ichaway Plantation, Jimmy Atkinson, (Ichaway is Georgia's largest plantation, the showplace of the now deceased CEO of Coca Cola, Robert Woodruff) said, "The goal is to burn the property on a two-year rotation, anywhere from a few to several thousand acres at a time. The 600 miles of unpaved roads are used as fire breaks. For quail, 60 to 70 percent of your area should be burned every year. Controlled burning is important to the management of a longleaf pine forest, as well as a quail population. Because quail are weak scratchers, meaning they can�t forage well through leaf litter or maneuver easily in thick brush, they need open areas. Recently burned areas not only are devoid of heavy brush, but they also are teeming with insects, on which the quail feed. In addition, plants that flower abundantly following burns provide food resources for the quail. Fire ties it all together. Without fire all the little oaks you see would take over and shade out the grasses and forbes that grow in the understory of the longleaf forest.�

Spring,

I did not realize where you were till I read your response to Norseman. I got the chance to visit Ichaway about 5 years ago as part of a Prescibed Burning class I took at Auburn. We were supposed to get to burn with them that day but it rained and all we could do was ride around and take a tour of the plantation. That place is beautiful. I also got a chance to see the after affects of a late summer burn in the Conecuh National Forest. Now that was a hot fire that really opens up the forest.

Great Pics. Last Friday must have been good all across the south. At my job, we burned 3 days in a row last week. This week is looking poor, but next week is better. Quail in Eastern Texas are almost non-existant because of the lack of fire on private lands. Prescribed burning can really get in your blood, at least until you get one of those days when conditions are just a tad "too" good - then you get where you couldn't drive a nail up your .... Well, it's just not good.

jfinch,

As a UGA grad, it's sometimes tough to hand out compliments to AU, but in the case of quail management, you deserve the kudos! Here in SW Georgia, Auburn coordinates the most extensive quail research project of all time, The Albany Quail Project. Never before has such a well funded (all private) quail research project taken place over such a long period of time. This project has been able to measure managment practices of almost ever variety through droughts, excessive rain, and a wide variety of property types using scientific techiniques never before available to researchers. And with their strong financial backing, they have been able to offer their research and newsletters free to anyone that is interested.

Yes, the guys at Auburn are finally doing something right!

I have read some of the work from the Albany Quail Project. I have degrees in Forestry Engineering and Agricultural Engineering and a minor in Forest Resources. I never persued the career in forestry even though I could be a registered forester because I could make considerably more money as an engineer. I am currently an applications engineer and size refrigeration systems for supermarkets, and convience stores. I am making it my mission to supply everyone with the COLDEST BEER POSSIBLE. I do miss being out in the woods especially this time of year when the weather is good. I guess I will just have to turkey hunt more to make up for it.

Nice pics and good job!

Nice burn Spring, too bad folks out west don't follow your lead...then when the real forest fires come, they can't figure out why their place (and house) goes up like a roman candle! Fuel loading at it's best...plus the critters like it too!!
Do you burn the same areas each year or do you have some sort of rotation in place??

MG

For what it's worth, as you can see in the picture below, even after a spring burn everything greens up with plenty of grasses and brush during the summer. This picture was taken in late July:

I usually burn about 2/3 of the property that is predominatly pine trees as well in other sections that are managed just for quail. I usually don't burn the hardwoods, except every few years I do just to reduce the fuel on the ground. So to answer your question, I rotate the fire between certain areas on an annual basis. Again, the primary reason for the rotation is to keep good nesting habitiat for the turkeys and quail.
Do much bird hunting yourself?
Here are a couple of more burn pics.....

This may apply to issues beyond burning, but... How much land do you need to have to make managing the habitat effective? My folks have about 35 acres and I have about 29 (about 70 miles apart) here in Vermont. I like to hunt both areas (deer, bear, ruffed grouse, and turkey), but to have a realistic chance of success I unfortunately really need to go elsewhere. Neither piece of land has very good habitat. Do I have access to enough land to make it worth doing something?

Thanks,
Bob

Bob,
As to whether or not it is "worth it" to manage your property for game, much of that depends on your objectives for the property. Burning the place can be your most effective and affordable tool, as it can open the place up and improve the food souces for most every variety of wildlife. It can also make the place more aesthetically appealing, not to mention more resisitant to the ill effects of an unwanted summer's fire when there's so much more fuel in the woods.
As for the benefit to your hunting interests, some of that also may be tied to what type of properties are around you. If you're surrounded by thick and unmanaged timber, your place being more open could turn into quite a haven for wild game as they find the grocery store open on your property.
On the other hand, your place is indeed too small for you alone to manage your deer as they will range well off your acreage throughout the hunting season. You'll need the cooperation of area landowners to adopt similar quailty deer management techniques to see that work, assuming there is addtional hunting pressure on adjacent properties.
The bottom line is that managing and improving your property can have many benefits, and how you measure that may depend on what you determine your objectives to be.

Spring,

Thanks for your reply and input. The goals for the property (my parent's land would be the most likely candidate) would essentially be to set myself up to increase my success rate in the seasons I discussed. I agree that the properties near theirs would be a key to the success. As there are few hunters (that I know of) that hunt the area on a consistent basis, I doubt that other land owners would be very receptive to helping my cause by managing their properties as well. Should I choose to do something with my folk's land I would hope that the first scenario that you mentioned (with their land becoming the grocery store/haven) would prove to be the case. The habitat around them is essentially a mix of hardwoods and softwoods, occasional clearings, and what would probably be considered limited areas for bedding. I also believe that food sources are limited in the area. There are some berry patches, but I doubt that it's enough to support a healthy population.

BTW: I believe that you mentioned that part of the reason for your burnings was to keep the hardwoods from growing. However, aren't some hardwood species (oak in particular, ie acorns) significant food sources for deer? Is the desire to keep the hardwoods out more for the management of the birds?

Thanks,
Bob

The desirability of hardwoods has become a hot topic in some circles. As far as deer hunting is concerned, they are fine and can be a very good resource. For birds, however, particularly those that nest on the ground, some wildlife managers have declared war on all hardwoods. Some of the local plantations have gone through and cut down every hardwood tree they can find over thousands of acres. The idea is that hardwoods provide great habitat for the things that are the most active predators for many birds, such as quail, grouse, and turkeys. The more habitat for raccoons, opossums, and such, the more raccoons, opossums and such you'll have. And on the other side of the coin, the reduction in their habitat should also reduce their numbers and predatory capabilities. I can't say that I agree with this war on hardwoods that we're now seeing in my area, however, as I still like a more balanced forest and my hunting interests reach beyond just propagating quail.

As for my purposes for controlling hardwoods when I burn, my desires are not to kill or eliminate my hardwoods, but to kill or reduce the numbers of young hardwood seedlings that can take over and consume an area if left unattended. Such thick scrub brush is totally contrary to my objectives that are to establish and maintain a variety of grasses and food sources for wildlife. We handle this objective by delaying the timing of our spring burns to coincide with the early signs of greening in the forest. This greening signals that the sap is starting to move in the seedlings. When we wait until then to burn, the fire causes the sap to boil and kills the young tree. This process does not happen in trees that are more than a few years old.

As for your property, if you have a nice population of deer in your area and there are few hunters in the region, you could easily make your property a high traffic area by planting feed plots on it for the fall. Corn could be a good choice, but if you don't have access to the equipment necessary to establish a 3-5 acre plot, then at least work on opening up areas in the next few months that will allow you to plant patches for the fall and winter. Oats, wheat, and rye are very easy selections and you'll have plenty of time between now and the fall season to create and plant your new food sources for game. If you do it right, and the hunting pressure is as light as you say, you'll soon have deer standing in line to walk on to your property!