Getting ready for savanna burns

Before we burn our savannas, we spend quite a bit of time clearing around snags (standing dead trees) and birches (standing living trees that are especially handsome in the woods).

We use a Stihl brush cutter equipped with plastic flails to clear around each tree. We use plastic flails rather than a metal saw blade so that the bark of the tree is not damaged.

We follow with a large Stihl leaf blower and clear all the debris resulting from the brush cutter. We also clear all leaves, and pick up any woody material that is touching the tree trunk.

It takes about four people-days to clear around all the trees in our 37 acres of upland savannas. This effort is probably worth it, because it greatly lessens the mop-up work otherwise needed after the burn.

In addition to snags and birches, Kathie also likes to clear around large white oaks, because their bark is relatively thin and it would be a shame to lose to burns a 150-year old tree.