Partners Work to Improve Forest Health in Monroe County

To me, a great day in the field is working along side our partners—Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and the Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC)—you just got to love our job!

NRCS and the Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC) entered into an agreement to provide increased assistance to forest landowners in Alabama. They are hands-on in helping with  the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Forestry Health Initiative that includes timber stand improvement, installing firebreaks, and prescribed burning.

On this near perfect day, our goal was to document the actual prescribe burning of a tract in Monroe County, from first flame to smoldering ember finish. Monroe County DAC Robin  had made several attempts to arrange a time when we could make our field trip, which proved to be problematic.  But, finally the day came, and with our cameras and file folders in hand, we headed to the field.

Overhead there were scattered billowy clouds set against a beautiful clear blue sky, the air temperature was around 64 degrees, and for a day in the middle of March, it was not too windy. As we made our way up County Hwy 41 towards the north-west corner of Monroe County—there it was—the grey smoke of a "forest fire."

This was not a real wild-fire, but a deliberate and well calculated "prescribe burn", which Monroe County AFC Forester Steve Lloyd and his crew had planned.

As you can see from the photographs, the fire-lanes had been cut and the crew was actively applying the fire to manageable sections of the property.

This particular property had not been burned in several years; however the fuel was not extremely heavy. The fire was taking a while to go through the woodlands, due to the moderate wind.  As we were discussing the need for a good breeze—the wind picked up and there she went—the fire started to move through the under-story.

First hand observation of fire as a conservation tool creates the realization for proper timing and preparation, both of which are required for a safe and effective prescribe burn application. Timing of the burn application is also vital to our success due to our tight timeline for contract deadlines and our brief springtime weather conditions. We have many acres to burn before our warm weather forces us out of the prescribe burn business.  We are seeing way too many blooms on the desirable plants of the forestlands to burn at some of sites.

Monroe and Conecuh SWCD/NRCS field offices have been working with county AFC crews.  The SWCD has partnered with them on State cost-share programs and AFC has served as the Technical Service Providers on EQIP-Forestry Health Initiative contracts—a total of 15 contracts with over 2,400 acres to burn.