Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Prescribed Burning Guidelines
in the Northern Great Plains
by
Kenneth F. Higgins
Arnold D. Kruse
James L. Piehl
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The use of fire to manage grasslands for wildlife is a relatively new management
option for resource managers in the Northern Great Plains (NGP). Nearly all
of the burning during the past 20-25 years has been conducted without the aid
of specific guidelines for the region. This state-of-the-art set of recommendations
was compiled because of this void.
Records of 902 grassland fires (primarily on U.S. Fish and Wildlife lands),
personal experiences, and synopses of other published fire research were used
in developing the guidelines in this manual.
Fifty-two percent of the 902 fires were in native prairie grasslands with
lesser amounts in tame and native grass plantings, wetlands, and woodlands.
Prescription grassland fires averaged 31 ha (77 acres) per burn. The personnel
needed to safely conduct a grassland fire depended on the size of the burn,
the kind of firebreaks, available equipment, and weather conditions. Costs
and hours of effort to conduct fires were inversely related to burn area size.
Cost ratios are extremely high for fires of less than 4 ha (10 acres). They
are essentially the same for burns of 16 to 113 ha (40 to 280 acres).
The two primary reasons for burning grasslands are wildlife habitat improvement
and native prairie restoration. Fire use steadily increased between 1965 and
1984, but the greatest increase occurred following workshop instruction in
1978.
These guidelines present a set of reasons, criteria, techniques, and examples
of simple prescriptions which aid in the planning and execution of a safe
and effective prescribed burning program for wildlife enhancement in grassland
areas of the NGP.
This resource is based on the following source (Northern Prairie Publication
0732):
Higgins, Kenneth F., Arnold D. Kruse and James L. Piehl. 1989. Prescribed burning
guidelines in the Northern Great Plains. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Cooperative Extension Service, South Dakota State University, U.S.
Department of Agriculture EC 760. 36 pp.
This resource should be cited as:
Higgins, Kenneth F., Arnold D. Kruse and James L. Piehl. 1989. Prescribed burning
guidelines in the Northern Great Plains. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Cooperative Extension Service, South Dakota State University, U.S.
Department of Agriculture EC 760. Jamestown, ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife
Research Center Online.
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/habitat/burning/index.htm (Version 16JUL97).
Contents
DISCLAIMER: Several older photographs used in this publication show
burn crews without appropriate personal protective equipment. Current Department
of Interior (DOI) requirements include Nomex shirts and pants, leather gloves
and boots, hardhat, goggles, and fire shelter. Requirements may be found in
the DOI Departmental Manual, chapter 910, DM 1; in the USFWS Service Refuge
Manual, chapter 6RM 7.8c; in the USFWS Service Manual, part 241 FW 7.1; or in
the USFWS Fire Management Preparedness and Planning Handbook, FWS 621 section
1.5.3.
- Preface
- Introduction
- Area covered by guidelines
- Fire in historical perspective
- Present-day burning
- Is fire a choice?
- Reasons for grassland burning
- Methods of spreading fire in grasslands
- Introduction
- Kinds of fires
- Basic patterns of burning grasslands
- Basic way to conduct a burn
- Confining fire
- Introduction
- Bare ground or mineral soil firebreaks
- Fire containment lines
- Chemical retardants
- Foam retardants
- Wetlines
- Mowing and haying
- Flappers, backpacks, shovels, rakes
- Burned firebreaks
- Snowbanks
- Smoke management
- Fire setting and confinement equipment
- Weather conditions
- Important weather variables
- Temperature
- Relative humidity
- Wind
- Precipitation
- Sunshine
- Atmospheric stability
- Weather information sources
- State-of-the-art fire prescriptions
- Low-risk prescription
- Partial fuel consumption prescriptions
- Complete fuel consumption prescriptions
- High-risk prescriptions
- Climate conditions on recent fires
- General prescriptions
- Permit to burn
- Burn site constraints
- Wilderness fires
- Training fire crew members
- Classroom and field instruction
- Fire management experience
- Safety
- Physical fitness standard
- Safety clothing
- Life-threatening situations
- Equipment purchase and repair
- Publicity
- Equipment check and testing
- Last-minute instructions
- Post-burn monitoring, mop-up, cleanup
- Perimeter monitoring
- Mop-up
- Site cleanup
- Evaluation of fire effects on the environment
- Evaluation of a grassland burn
- Adequacy of plans and preparations
- Adequacy of the prescription on habitat manipulation
- Literature cited
- Appendix A -- An extensive fire plan
- Appendix B -- A brief fire plan for a low risk
site
- Appendix C -- A brief fire plan for a site that
is part of a larger comprehensive burn plan
- Appendix D -- A burn site evaluation form
- Appendix E -- Red flag situations
- Appendix F -- Fire situations that shout "watch
out"
- Appendix G -- Examples of fuel and fire retardant
mixtures
- Appendix H -- List of figures
Downloading Instructions -- Instructions
on downloading and extracting files from this site.
burning.zip
(1.8M) -- Prescribed Burning Guidelines in the Northern Great Plains
Installation: Extract all files and open index.htm in a web browser.
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey