Sun Lake Stewardship, April 2002 !
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Starting the Blaze
Facing W, at the NW edge of Sun Lake, just E of Sequoit Creek.
The participants watched as the flames finally caught on, but were busy
ramming branches from an adjacent pile into this one beforehand to get
it going.
We were lucky to get the right conditions to make the burn possible:
low wind, dry piles, damp vegetation - and helpful FPD staff Tom Smith. |
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Starting the Bonfire
- wasn't easy with this loosely stacked pile. George brought a propane
tank with a wand that threw a big flame, and had to reinsert it in several
places before finding a sweet spot. |
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Fun
Bonfires are fun, and we held this one to attract members to join our mission.
But the bonfire itself is of little ecological value. The other piles at
the site are decaying naturally without burning, and provide habitat for
birds and rabbits. And the fire burns too hot to benefit the native seed
bank dormant in the underlying soil.
The FPD spends significant effort burning brush piles for the sole purpose
of satisfying the aesthetic preferences of the general public, and FPD
staff Tom Smith, who is accustomed to burning dozens of piles in a morning,
was dissatisfied with our modest goal of 2 with the same time commitment. |
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Crackle, Hiss, Roar
"Tony the Firebug" |
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Big Fire
Stand way back. |
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Big Heat
The bed of white coals radiated more intense heat than the flames, and
the group kept their distance.
Tom, Jacqueline, Josh, Curtis, Tony, Greg. Not shown: Lidia, Mike, John,
Paula, Evan. |
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Meanwhile
Some members left the fire to cut a few stands of buckthorn directly to
the north. See last month's pictures for the before shots. |
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After
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Afterglow
The outing ended at noon, and most of the participants headed out. George,
Tony, Tom and Evan stayed another 2 hours raking the coals to quicken their
oxidation. The radiant heat was intense, and after "jumpers" spent 10 to
15 seconds raking we made fun of each others' bright red complexions!
Less wise bonfire tenders at other locations have scattered hot coals
like these only to be astonished that they started surrounding brush on
fire. |
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Fire Control
With most of the fuel consumed by the fire, Tom and Tony doused the remaining
embers using these water guns. The soil in this area is Houghton Muck,
a highly organic soil that has been known to burn. The water table was
only 8 inches below the surface, so we made sure we got the surface temperature
back down below ignition temperatures. |
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Future Goals
Our next goal for this area is to re-seed it with native grasses and forbes
before the exotics can reestablish. We've asked FPD staff Tom Smith and
Ken Klick for the seed, and we hope Ken will help us apply it.
Rather than another bonfire our next fire event will be a prairie fire
to help retard regrowth of buckthorn saplings where we've previously cleared
them, and encourage native grasses and wildflowers to flourish. With help
from the FPD, we hope to schedule this in 2003 or 2004. |
Saturday,
