Fire management integral to environment, military mission

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Mike Meares
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Fire is a feared four letter word.

Fire doesn't hold grudges, is not prejudice and destroys everything in its path, but it holds an entirely different meaning for the fire management technicians at Jackson Guard's Natural Resources branch.

Evidence of their work can be seen on any given day from the December to July burn season in the form of white smoke plumes blanketing the sky of Northwest Florida. Their job is to keep a delicate longleaf pine ecosystem thriving while keeping the military mission a priority year round.

"Eglin's forests have global importance, including the largest remaining stand of old growth longleaf pine trees in the world," said James Furman, Eglin Natural Resources section fire management officer. "Managing this forest with prescribed burning mimics the natural process."

Eglin is the largest Air Force base in the U.S. with more than 464,000 acres of land, and is home to more than 77 state and federally listed rare species, including gopher tortoises, eastern indigo snakes and the fourth largest population of the red cockaded woodpeckers; 362,000 acres of this land is forested with the fire-dependent longleaf pine ecosystem.

"It's special to me to take part in the active management of these woods," said Jeremy Preston, Eglin Natural Resources wildlife section biological science technician. "I'm not a military member, I'm not in the services, but this is a way I take part, I feel, in the national security of this great country. I'm not in Iraq or out on the battle fields, but if I can help maintain this testing installation, then I feel like I have a small part in the national defense of this country."

The longleaf-pine tree was once the primary tree species found in more than 80 million acres in the southeastern United States from Virginia to Texas. Now, less than two million acres of longleaf pines remain. Eglin houses the largest contiguous acreage of old-growth longleaf pine left in the world.

Eglin's natural resources branch is using fire as a tool to help the forest the very same way Mother Nature intended it to be used. Though the word fire is synonymous with death and destruction, fire occurring naturally keeps the forest and the animals that call it home thriving.

"Unfortunately, with the fragmented landscape we have, nature can't burn the way it used to," said Kevin Hiers, prescribed fire program manager. "If the truth be told, Native Americans and human activity has always been involved in burning the woods, particularly here in the Southeast. Humans have always burned the landscape; we just haven't called it prescribed fire until this last century."

Prescribed burning is a fire applied in a skillful manner, under exacting weather conditions, in a definite location to achieve specific results. An appropriately controlled burn reduces fuels that feed dangerous fires and assure the next fire season would not bring destructive, property damaging fire.

"Prescribed burning is an important tool that we use to manage Eglin's ecosystems," Mr. Furman said."The way we burn mimics the frequent, low intensity fires that occurred in these forests naturally."

With more than 100,000 acres burned last season, the goal is to burn a five-year average of 70,000 acres per year. This goal is to aid in ecosystem and long-term forest management, so the entire Eglin reservation would see fire at least once every five years.

According to Mr. Hiers, the Natural Resources branch conducts a burn program for a variety of reasons on Eglin. With a multi-layered mind set, their mission is to sustain the military testing operations by prescribe burning the areas testing and training is conducted in. This reduces the chance for potentially catastrophic wildfires starting from mission activity.

The second reason to burn is to improve the endangered species and wildlife habitat. Through their burn program, research into fire behavior and fire dependant species is conducted.

"We have one of the largest and most innovative prescribed fire programs in the country," said Mr. Hiers. "To be able to work here and work with the military mission, to meet those objectives, it's the best job on the planet."

Prescribed fire to this fire-dependant ecosystem poses challenges for the Eglin natural resources officers. Beginning in August, a burn prioritization model is built. This model helps officials determine the areas in need of burning across the reservation. It also includes potential military missions on the range and helps de-conflict the schedules, while establishing the hazards.

"It's a big jigsaw puzzle," Mr. Hiers said. "It's a very challenging, yet rewarding, job to be able to put together all those pieces and actually create a tapestry on the Eglin landscape; which really is one of the more unique landscapes in the United States in terms of biodiversity."

Once the model is complete, the pre-burn preparation begins in October. Here, items are identified as valued assets at risk during a fire. The trees the red cockaded woodpecker inhabits, power poles, structures and erosion control devices are just a few of the considerations.

The red-cockaded woodpecker is an endangered species once very common throughout the southeastern United States. The RCW bores holes into living, old-growth longleaf pine trees for breeding and nesting activities. Logging and land-clearing practices during the turn of the century dramatically altered the landscape's number of pine forests, which caused the bird's numbers to plummet.

Eglin's natural resource management efforts have successfully resulted in the fourth largest red-cockaded population in the world.

"It's the only species of woodpecker that excavates cavities in living longleaf pine trees," said Mr. Preston, the red cockaded woodpecker monitor for the April 8 control burn. "The RCW is an 'indicator species.' If the species is thriving, it indicates that the forest is generally healthy."

Each burn block, or a specific piece of land, has a burn packet that lays out the plan, maps and preparation concerns. The planning teams schedule burns using a software program that shows all planned military missions on the range.

Once the site has been selected, a smoke plume model is created based on the forecasted weather patterns and submitted to the 46th Test Wing Range Operation Control Center for coordination.

On the day of a burn, the burn proposal is sent to the Florida Division of Forestry to double check the conditions for the burn and final approval.

"We want to make sure that our data is accurate to avoid smoke impacts to the community and the division of forestry's oversight gives us verification that the conditions are appropriate," said Mike Spaits, Environmental public affairs officer. "Our goal is to keep all smoke on the reservation to the greatest extent possible, causing the least amount of impact on the community."

Safety, the community impact, rapidly changing weather conditions or potential endangerment to protected species are a great concern during prescribed burn operations. Burns can end before they begin and be extinguished prematurely if the safety of the crew and wildlife are threatened, as in the case of the April 8 attempt to burn 1,700 acres.

Eglin fire management goes beyond starting their own prescribed fires. Throughout the course of the year, they fight more than 100 wild fires that pop up along the landscape. Whether it was started by human carelessness, mission activity or lightning, the team spring into action to contain the flame before it causes irreversible damage.

"Wildfires burn under conditions we don't choose," Mr. Hiers said. "It could be very dry; it could be very windy; it could be very devastating, both to the forest resources and to the military objectives for the landscape."

The prescribe burns clear the way for the harvesting of offsite pine species like the sand pine that were planted in the 1960's. The revenue generated is used to reforest the areas with longleaf pine seedling's. Eglin plants an average of nearly two million longleaf seedling's each year.

So far this season, the fire management program has burned more than 76,000 acres and counting. The charred black earth in the days following each burn begins to sprout new life and turn green, teaming with new flourishing life.

"These ecosystems are well adapted to fire," Mr. Furman said. "The ash from the fire acts as a natural fertilizer sending a pulse of energy in to the ecosystem. Due to Florida's mild wet climate, the once charred forest floor is teaming with life in a matter of weeks."