Last burn of the season

We have been waiting two weeks for the right conditions to finish our planned burns for the spring season, and finally today we found them! These were all oak woodland burns, not particularly large, but fairly complicated. Fortunately, everything went fine.

The weather had been sunny and clear for the past several days but this morning it was cloudy, and rain was forecast for later in the day. However, the R.H. remained low (30-35%) and the temperature was moderate (60-65 F), with a wind of 5-10 mph out of the east. Importantly, the fuel (primarily oak leaves) remained dry.

We first burned a fairly large wooded area near the corner of Pleasant Valley Road and County Hwy F. This was a former honeysuckle area that had substantial numbers of resprouts from the seed bank. In early March we had treated all of these small plants with Garlon 4 (basal bark). Getting the area burned was important to top kill any plants we had missed.

Another area was a fine white oak woodland at the east end of the Conservancy that had a substantial buckthorn infestation. Again, Garlon 4 basal bark had been used, and was followed today by a good burn. (See photo)


We also burned several other small areas that had been missed in our earlier burns.

We started lighting about 10:15 A.M. and finished about 2:30 PM. Shortly after we finished, it started to rain. Good timing!