Big oak savanna burn 4-6-2014

Last Sunday we had very favorable weather and a great crew and got almost all of our remaining burns finished. See this post for the earlier burn.

Burn crew getting ready to start the big savanna burn

GIS map of the Apr 6 burns. The area shown in green was burned first and the gray last.

The savanna burn was especially complicated because the fuel was so lush. With a south wind, we backburned as much as possible. (See photo below) Even with backburns, flame heights occasionally flared up.

The fire moving down through unit 11D savanna. Note how lush the fuel is.

There was quite a bit of mop-up, and a few large trees that had hollow trunks caught on fire and fell. Although we love each individual tree, we realize that in a fire-controlled oak savanna some older trees will fall.

After the burn, unit 10, the large bur oak savanna on the ridge top. The lighter colored area in the distance is the top of the south-facing slope that was burned the week before. 

After the burn, large white oaks on the lower savanna slope.

After a late lunch we moved to the east end of the Conservancy and burned the East Basin and Ridge Prairies and the associated oak woods, another 11 acres.