At a landowner meeting recently in Union County, multiple conservation groups presented the idea of establishing a minimum of five prescribed burn associations across the state.

Agencies included Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and Quail Forever.

Representatives from these groups laid out the methods and benefits of regular control burns to the 20 private landholders representing 4,000 acres across south Arkansas.

Luke Lewis, AGFC assistant chief of wildlife management, explained the agency's goal.

"Our director's goal is to establish five prescribed burn associations across the state in the next few years," Lewis said. "Funding is already in place with Game and Fish to start now."

Presenters laid out several benefits for prescribed burn associations around the state from Fort Smith to Central Arkansas and the piney woods of the coastal plain. Among other things, fire helps establish natural regeneration of grass species as a food source for wildlife and opens up woodlands by eliminating understory thickets. Turkey and quail especially benefit from such improvements.

With the Arkansas Department of Agriculture Forestry Division charging $50 per acre to do a control burn on private land, prescribed burn associations can reduce that cost to almost nothing making regular biannual burns more affordable for the average individual. Members of a local association help each other out with prescribed burns on individual lands, taking turns trading out manpower with their neighbors to put fire on each other's ground.

Each area association would have its own AGFC/Quail Forever co-funded equipment trailer assigned for use by its members in nearby counties. In addition, the associations offer "Learn to Burn I" and "Learn to Burn II" classes. The initial course is primarily classroom study educating participants on the proper use and control of fire in relation to weather, safety, effect on species and implementing a proper burn plan and protocol. Learn to Burn II takes members into a real life control burn scenario with hands-on experience in the field.

One important fact pointed out to attendants is how Arkansas does not have an established "burn law."

If association members are following an approved burn plan, with the proper tools, manpower and resources and not being negligent in their procedures, it's difficult to be found liable for damage if a fire gets beyond control boundaries, officials said.

Meanwhile, attendees also heard Clint Johnson, AGFC Quail Program coordinator, give a brief history of native habitat in Arkansas and discuss how prescribed burns on the landscape benefit wildlife and forest health.

"Fire replicates a natural ecological process by applying disturbance to the forest," Johnson said. "It is an important component in the ecosystem."

He expounded on the area's history.

"Following the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S. government surveyed the entire region between 1815 and 1840, dividing it into real estate parcels with boundary and section lines.

They also recorded the nature of the woodlands in Arkansas finding blackjack, white and post oak as the most prominent indigenous species. Cedars on the other hand were practically non-existent," Johnson said.

"Spacing between trees in those early forests was from 50 to 100 feet apart while we find it's more like only 10 feet today. Eastern bison and prairie chickens were also prevalent in abundance. Bison are now gone along with prairie chickens being practically extinct," he said.

"The forests were open making it practical for most early pioneers to travel across the landscape in horse drawn wagons. There was plenty of horse fodder with some 250-plus herbaceous grass species. There was a greater mass of grass than trees. Humans have been on the Arkansas landscape for 12,000 years. Native Americans actually had fire and wildlife managers among their tribes," Johnson said.

With the arrival of railroads to the region in the late 1800's, overexploitation of timber resources became prevalent with clear cutting of large tracts.

"In 1905, the U.S. Forest Service was founded and tasked with reestablishing forests from stump-land. The mindset for generations became to only prevent forest fires without considering the benefits of prescribed fire to open up understory and reduce fuel on the landscape," Johnson said.

In 2015, public support for prescribed burning came into fashion with increased agency funding and ramped up training for use of fire as a tool.

Johnson shared statistics regarding fire across the nation.

"Southern states account for 74% of prescribed burning. Fifty percent of all wildfires nationwide occurred in the same region from 2006 to 2016," he said.

From 2017 to 2021, wildfires in the South were greatly reduced by utilization of prescribed burning.

"There were 260,000 acres managed by prescribed burns as apposed to 16,000 acres subject to wildfires," he said.

The increased employment of prescribed burns during that five year period accounted for 16 times more acres managed by control burns as fell victim to wildfire.

"The entire ecosystem is driven to add fuel to the landscape. Regular prescribed burns reduce the fuel in the woods and restores the natural balance of wildlife habitat," Johnson said.

Addressing factors limiting the proper use of fire to manage timberland, Johnson listed a lack of proper tools, lack of proper training and experience, lack of manpower to properly manage a prescribed burn and limited number of prescribed burn contractors to implement the process.

In answer to those shortfalls, establishing prescribed burn associations across the state can help individual landowners combine manpower, become educated on fire control and have fully outfitted equipment trailers available for use with an entire compliment of drip-torches, fire rakes, goggles, fire-resistant jump-suits and gloves for 20 people to safely work a fire.

For interested parties wishing to learn more about prescribed burn associations, contact AGFC's Private Lands Biologist Supervisor Ted Zawislak at (870) 404-4789 or (877) 297-4331 or at ted.zawislak@agfc.ar.gov.

Print Headline: Agencies call for state burn groups

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