Planned Burn For Wildlife (Part 1)

[Ranch Dog]

My family did a planned burn on my place yesterday with assistance from Texas Parks & Wildlife. We burnt two of the six burn units on my place as according to my wildlife management plan I'm supposed to burn one a year but the drought prevented it last year...


Starting a "black line" with a "back fire" on the downwind side of the burn area. This along with the disced fire break will arrest the main fire. This unit is a bit spooky as the fire is going to go directly to my home!


The "front fire" has been lighted. It's a heck of a thing to start a fire that is going to move directly to your home!


Viewed from another angle, the fire is moving toward my home, I'm glad I couldn't see this at the time!Notice the upper part of the cloud is bending over the top of my home! Mission completed with no problems! Now the long process of returning this improved pasture to native pasture begins. Rows of single strand fence will be erected. Birds will land on the fence and their poop will plant the native seeds! It's a very long process, one that I will never see finished but worth the time and effort!


Burning a black line around one of my tower blinds. This burn into the wind is very important and it needs to burn far enough out that the front fire will not consume the blind.

[Ranch Dog]

Establishing the black line with a back fire.


The back fire burning into the wind, notice the tower blind in the background.


The front fire has been lit, I cannot describe how quick it takes and how fierce it sounds. You cannot believe you just caught your place on fire when it lights!


In seconds the twenty five acre unit has been consumed. Here is my dad, notice the radio in hand. He had the job along with a couple of other fellows of minding the black line. That is another thing on your mind when you light the front fire... the fire is going to sweep past my dad and others monitoring the line! There is a lot on your mind with that torch in your hand!

[Gunload Master]

Wow! a 25 acre section too. That's a big section for a burn. Something like this probably feels really good to have over with and have it go successfully.

[Ranch Dog]

Yes, felt real good to get these two burn units taken care of... 39.3 acres total!

[dale clawson]

Good job. Restoring the land the way nature intended. We have burned as much as320 acres at a time(intentionally, we once burned a lot more unintentionally).
It needs to be used a lot more here, but the laibilities are daunting. We had a neighbor who once just tossed a match into the grass on a windy day with no firereaks, backburning, etc.It burned for several miles and destroyed a lot of fencing. A barbed wire fence costs about 10,000 a mile now. He won't be so careless again. DALE