Prescribed fire sustains Arnold land management goals

  • Published
  • By Shannon Allen
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. – Proper utilization of prescribed fire is both art and science, as it takes a combination of fuel conditions, weather conditions, smoke management, ignition techniques and timing to result in the appropriate fire intensity to accomplish site specific management goals.

All of the Arnold Air Force Base ecosystems, from forests to grasslands, are perpetuated by disturbance regimes. Disturbances can be natural or manmade, such as major storm events, fires, floods, timber harvesting, herbicide applications, insect infestations and natural mortality.

Prescribed fire is a tool used by land managers to accomplish a suite of management goals as efficiently as possible. Prescribed fire is by far the most cost effective tool at a land manager’s disposal, especially when compared to other management techniques such as bush-hogging, under-brushing woodlots or herbicide applications.

The base has three primary management goals for which prescribed fire is the best tool: manipulating structure type, competition control and fuels reduction. Arnold uses prescribed fire to improve, maintain, or sometimes, completely change the structure of a site. An example would be using fire to maintain grasslands that benefit grassland dependent wildlife, such as Henslow’s Sparrow.

The use of prescribed fire also promotes new growth by removing dead vegetation and suppressing woody species that would eventually grow into a forest in the absence of fire. The process is very useful for competition control on sites where the desired species is fire tolerant. It is used in the base pine plantations to control the encroachment of hardwood and other undesirable species. The loblolly pines, in the pine plantations at Arnold AFB, tolerate much higher fire intensity than the undesirable species. Fuels reduction is accomplished by periodically using a low intensity prescribed fire to consume dead fuels, such as leaves, broken branches, dead grasses and timber. Reducing fuels with prescribed fire does not kill the forest overstory, or larger and taller trees and decreases the chance of wildfire.

The majority of prescribed fire operations occur form March – May. During this timeframe both weather and fuel conditions are generally conducive to accomplishing prescribed fire management goals.

For more information contact the Arnold AFB Natural Resources Planner at 454-5466 or the Arnold AFB Forester at 454-3230.