Ozarks Burning

[oneshot 1]

Thought my wife might be call in because of weather.  Nope Boss called get your butt in here third of the state is burning. 

He says well there is fires everywhere. 

So won't see her until tomorrow.

I was just telling her there was a big one by Bennett Springs and it was one of those that go for miles. 

oneshot 

[oneshot 1]

Well it rained some and winds died down so my wife is home.

She said 17 houses burned in Mack's Creek, 700 acres burned over by Bennett Springs, another house burnt somewhere and there was a fire at the Barrel Plant lightning hit some Pallets. 

oneshot 

[snagged in outlet 3]

  On 3/14/2025 at 9:54 PM, oneshot 1 said:

third of the state is burning. 

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That might be an exaggeration 😆

[oneshot 1]

  On 3/15/2025 at 2:12 AM, snagged in outlet 3 said:

That might be an exaggeration 😆

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You think!

She said it was actually kind of boring but she made up hours because they sent her home because our Dog died.

oneshot 

[Quillback]

1/3 of Arkansas is burning.  At least the third across from Hickory Creek COE Park on Beaver.

[tjm]

Old timers used to burn parts of the land every three years on rotation to prevent worse fires and to promote grass and wild berries. And March was usually when they burned.  So if 1/3 of the Ozarks is burning, that's just about right. Huckleberries need fires and blackberries, raspberries like fires. Three years more or less fits their cycle and doesn't allow too much accumulation of fuel, fire prevention is bad for healthy forestland. Smokey Bear should be skinned and made into a rug.

Try not to pick a wind storm day to burn though, as you do want to contain the burn.

[oneshot 1]

  On 3/15/2025 at 7:48 PM, tjm said:

Old timers used to burn parts of the land every three years on rotation to prevent worse fires and to promote grass and wild berries. And March was usually when they burned.  So if 1/3 of the Ozarks is burning, that's just about right. Huckleberries need fires and blackberries, raspberries like fires. Three years more or less fits their cycle and doesn't allow too much accumulation of fuel, fire prevention is bad for healthy forestland. Smokey Bear should be skinned and made into a rug.

Try not to pick a wind storm day to burn though, as you do want to contain the burn.

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Finally talked to someone with MDC that was for taking care of Wildlife. 

He was all for burning the Timber every 3 years. He said most of them think they have to protect the timber and think this good for Wildlife.

oneshot 

[tjm]

  On 3/15/2025 at 9:47 PM, oneshot 1 said:

He said most of them think they have to protect the timber

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The foresters always look at marketable timber and burn scars hurt the $ value of a forest. What they didn't always realize is that the longer between burns, the more fuel is accumulated and the greater the damage. Every year burns would prevent almost all fire damage, but would have so little fuel that it would be hard to keep the fire going, three years has just about the right amount of fuel for a sustained fire with minimum damage, and that is slowly being taught to the state foresters, younger ones learn faster than the people that grew up with Smokey.

I think that if we had a time machine and went back to about 1800 that we'd find very little timber across the Ozarks by comparison to today. My grandfather told me that when he was a boy, 1890s,  all this local forest was savanna, and that his father told him it was almost all prairie during the Civil War.  When  Henry Schoolcraft explored the Ozarks 1818 he is said to have carried a packhorse load of campfire wood with him because of distance between stands of trees.

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

Interesting conversation.  

[Quillback]

Fire weather warning for this area starting Monday afternoon.  

They just did a controlled burn on the Pea Ridge battlefield last week.