U.S. Department of Agriculture

Forest Service Research Note SE-316 August 1982

Prescribed Burning on Large Landholdings

in the South During 1975

by Ragnar W. Johansen and William H. McNab‘

Abstract. --Approximately 1.85 million acres of commercial

timberland in large private and Federal holdings were prescription burned in the South during 1975. At least an additional 298,000 acres of wild land were burned for wildlife

habitat and range improvement. Thus, in excess of 2.15 million acres of total wild land (timberland plus other wild

land) was prescription burned on large landholdings in the

South during 1975. This total does not include any prescription burning on small landholdings. Private industry

burned 1.27 million acres, 40 percent for site preparation.

Keywords: Fire management, site preparation, fuel reduction.

Prescribed burning has long been a

common treatment on forest land in the

South, but the acreage treated has been

unknown because no uniform system exists for reporting prescribed burning

activity in most states. This Note reports the results of a survey of managers of large forest-land holdings.

Managers were asked to give the acreage

burned and the purpose of burning.

Since most such treatments are done on

large holdings, the data reported here

represent a large but unknown percentage of all prescribed burning in the

South.

Planners need this information to

estimate the location and amount of

smoke emissions in the region and to

determine the portion of fire-prone

area being protected annually by prescribed fire.

1 Research Foresters,

Georgia, and Utilization

Georgia, respectively.

Southeastern

Fire Science Project. Macon,

of Southern Timber, Athens,

2 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.

Forest statistics of the U.S., 1977. Washington, DC:

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; 1978.

133 p.

3 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.

Forest Service accomplishment report for National Forests in Region 8 during fiscal year 1976 (July 1,

1975- June 30, 1976. Washington, DC: U.S. Department

of Agriculture, Forest Service; 1976.

Forest Experiment Station - Asheville, North Carolina

SAMPLING METHODS

Information on area managed, extent of prescription burning, and purpose of burning in the South during

1975 was gathered in three ways, depending on what was already published

and how easily land managers could be

contacted.

The acreage of commercial forest

in the National Forest System and in

private industry holdings was obtained

from a published report.' Prescribed

burning statistics for National Forests

were obtained from agency accomplishment reports.3 Land managed and prescribe burned by other Federal agencies

in the South, such as the Departments
of Defense, Fish and Wildlife Service,

and National Park Service, was acquired

by personally contacting the individual

in charge of each major holding.

Data on burning by private industry in the South were obtained by sending a questionnaire to a sample of 230

land managers in 11 Southern States.

Requested information included: (1)

acres of forest land being managed, (2)

total area prescription burned in 1975,

and (3) area burned for site preparation. Kentucky and Oklahoma, often

considered Southern States, were excluded because prescribed burning is

not widely practiced in those States.

acreage was in large Federal or forest

industry holdings (table 1). Private

industry managed some 18.9 percent of

the commercial forest acreage. National Forests were a distant second in

area managed with 5.8 percent.

PRIVATE INDUSTRY PRESCRIPTION BURNING

Burning on small private ownerships was excluded from this assessment. Reliable information for this

ownership group is not available and

will not become so until reporting

systems similar to those now in effect

in Florida and North Carolina are initiated in the other states.

AREA IN LARGE HOLDINGS

There were 76 responses to the

questionnaires sent to private industry

with at least one response from each of

the States sampled (table 2). Respondents collectively managed about lo-314

million acres of timberland, which is

about 31 percent of all industrymanaged land in the South. Sample

size, based on fraction of industry

land accounted for in the sample,

ranged from 4.7 percent in Florida to

over 60 percent in Georgia, South

Carolina, and Tennessee. By extrapolating the acreage prescription burned

in each State, based on the sample

received, a total of 1,273,600 acres

was estimated for industry in the 11

sampled Southern States.

In 1975, the 11 States contained More than two-thirds of the pre184,107,OOO acres of commercial forest scription burning identified in the

land. Approximately 26 percent of this study was done by forest industry,

State

All

commercial

timberlanda

Alabama 21,331

Arkansas 18,207

Florida 15,330

Georgia 24,812

Louisiana 14,527

Mississippi 16,892

North Carolina 19,562

South Carolina 12,176

Tennessee 12,820

Texas 12,512

Virginia 15,939

Total 184,107 10,730.3 1,545.19 616.2 20 34,762.7 47,674.4 __

Percentage

of commercial

Table 1 .--Large commercial forest-land holdings in the Southern States in 1977

Large ownership groups

Department Fish & National

Nat ional o f Wildlife Park Private Total

Forest a Defenseb Serviceb Serviceb industrya

______ _ _ _ _ Thousand acres _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Percent

617.8 100.13 _- -_ 4,204.g 4,922.8 23.1

2,413.7 - - - - - - 3,950.7 6,364.4 35.0

1,005.3 521.82 94.8 20 5,318.6 6,960.5 45.4

812.6 469.30 429.0 - - 4,318.2 6,029.l 24.3

559.6 63.23 - - _ - 3,761.4 4r384.2 30.2

1,122.0 6.30 46.8 -_ 2,505.l 3,680.2 21.8

1,028.8 216.46 _- _- 2,134.8 3,380.l 17.3

572.8 50.33 45.6 - - 2,006.9 2,675.6 22.0

578.7 - - - _ _- 1,121.4 1,700.l 13.3

595.0 33.94 - - _ - 3,771.l 4,400.l 35.2

1,424.0 83.68 - - - - 1,669.6 3,177.3 19.9

forest land -_ 5.8 .8 .3 0 18.9 _- 25.9

a U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Forest statistics of the U.S., 1977. Washington, DC:

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 1978. 133 p.

b Data derived from personal inquiries, 1980. On file: Ragnar W. Johansen, Southern Forest Fire Laboratory, Macon, Georgia.

I
Table 2.--Summary of prescri,tion burning by private industry during 1975

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (4) x (5) (2) + (5)

Questionnaire Timberland Area Total Extrapolated Fraction

State respcndents managed by P.,ascription industry industry area of industry

respondents burned areaa prescription land

burned sampled

Number PI acres -____-M acres Percent M acres M acres Percent

Alabama 8 1,064.3 24.3 2.28 4,204.9 95.9 25.3

z\rkansas 3 895.0 30.0 3.35 3,950.7 132.3 22.6

Florida 1 250.0 16.8 6.72 5,318.6 357.4 4.7

Georgia 22 2,607.l 37.1 1.42 4,318.2 61.3 60.4

Louisiana 17 1,412.l 131.6 9.32 3,761.4 350.6 37.5

Mississippi 2 874.8 25.6 2.93 2,505.L 73.4 34.9

Korth Carolina 7 868.5 28.8 3.32 2,134.B 70.9 40.7

South Carolina 8 1,215.0 34.0 2.80 2,006.9 56.2 60.5

Tennessee 2 694.0 19.5 2.81 1,121.4 31.5 61.9

Texas 1 524.0 2.7 .52 3,771.l 19.6 13.9

Virginia 5 369.0 5.4 1.47 1,669.6 24.5 22.1

Total or average 76 10,773.8 355.8 3.3 34,762.7 1,273.6 31.0

a

u .S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Forest statistics of the U.S., 1977. Washington,

DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 1978. 133 p.

which burned 3.7 percent of its forest was done to reduce hazardous fuel

land in 1975 (table 3). Considerable buildup, and the trend on military resland on National Forests and 200,150 ervations is toward increasing hazardacres of military timberland were reduction burning. Based on actual

burned. This area represents 13 per- prescribed-burning records from Federal

cent of commercial timberland on mili- lands and estimates made from industry

tary reservations. Most burning there respondents, approximately 1,855,OOO

Table 3.--Commercial timberland prescription burned in the South

during the 1975 burning season, by ownership

-

State

Department Fish & National

National of Wildlife Park Forest

Forest a Defense Service Service industry Total

Alabama

__--_-___-_-_- Thousand acres _ _ _ - _ _ - - - - - - _ _

38.80 22.65 _- _- 95.87 ‘l-57.32

Arkansas 9.78

Florida 71.71

Georgia 5.28

Louisiana 69.04

Mississippi 89.75

North Carolina 6.72

South Carolina 43.53

Tennessee .19

Texas 23.73

Virginia .64

-_

35.94

77.54

6.82

.80

32.24

11.82

-_

4.26

8.08

__ -- 132.35

3.5 1.4 357.41

11.5 _- 61.32

__ -_ 350.56

3.1 -- 73.40

-_ -_ 70.88

2.3 __ 56.19

-- -- 31.51

_- _- 19.61

-- _- 24.54

142.13

469.96

155.64

462.42

167.05

109.84

113.84

31.70

47.60

33.26

Total 359.17 200.15 20.4 1.4 1,273.64 1,854.76

Burned fraction

(percentj 3.3 13.0 3.3 7.0 3.7 -^

a I'.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Forest Service accomplishment report

for National Forests irl Region 8 during fiscal year 1976 (July 1, 1975-June 30, 1976). Washingtc>n, DC: U.S. department of Agricu!ture, Forest Service. 1976.
acres were prescribe burned on all

large commercial timberland holdings

during the 1975 burning season.

Extensive burning also takes place

on other than commercial forest land.

Martin4 estimated that 106,110 acres

were burned for range improvement and

192,000 acres to improve muskrat trapping in Louisiana alone. Marshland

burns were also prescribed in the

Everglades National Park, and in other

places unknown to the authors. Total

forest and other wild-land burning

therefore exceeded the 2.15 million

acres reported here for 1975.

EXTENT OF SITE PREPARATION BURNING

Of the various types of burns that

can be prescribed on forest areas, site

preparation burning is usually the most

severe, because fuel loadings are usually heavy and burning is done when the

fire will be sufficiently intense to

maximize fuel consumption.

In Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia

almost all of the burning was for site

preparation (table 4), and this type of

burning accounted for a sizable proportion of the total in most of the

other States. Over 40 percent of prescription burning reported by private

industry was for site preparation.

Of particular interest is the

fraction of site preparation burns in

which logging debris has been piled

before burning. When debris is properly piled and burned, much of the

large material that would remain after

a broadcast burn is consumed. Eiowever,

because more material is consumed,

smoke emissions are increased. Smoldering combustion is also increased,

and its attendant particulate production is greater than that for flaming

combustion.5 In 1975, nearly onethird of the site preparation burns

were conducted with piled debris.

stable 4 .--Site preparation and other industry-conducted prescription

burning in 11 Southern States during 1975

Site preparation burning

State Site prepOther Total

aration burning burning

Broadcast Piled fraction

Alabama 10,852 48,437 61.8

Arkansas 8,823 17,647 20.0

Florida 170,195 -- 47.6

Georgia 7,112 23,979 50.7

Louisiana 48,175 5,613 15.3

Mississippi 18,146 6,153 33.1

North Carolina 49,704 464 70.8

South Carolina 2,196 24,295 47.1

Tennessee 11,634 19,877 100.0

Texas -- 19,610 100.0

Virginia 24,376 -- 99.3

Acres Acres Percent Acres Acres

36,582

105,879

187,214

30,227

296,774

49,100

20,708

29,702

--

167

95,871

132,349

357,409

61,318

350,562

73,399

70,876

56,193

31,511

19,610

24,543

Total or

average

351,213 166,075 40.6 756,353 1,273,641

5

4

Ryan, Paul W.; McMahon, Charles K. Some chemical

Martin, Robert E.; Cooper, Robert W.; Crow, A. and physical characteristics of emissions from forest

Bigler. Final report of the task force on prescribed fires. In: Proceedings 69th annual meeting of the Air

burning. Unpublished draft on file: Bend, OR: Robert Pollution Control Association; 1976 June 27- July 1;

E. Martin, Silvicultural Laboratory, Pacific Northwest Portland, OR: Pittsburgh, PA: Air Pollution; 1976.

Forest and Range Experiment Station; 1976. 21 p.

u. 6. Cov.r-“r Prinring Office: 1982~-539-000/4016 Rqion No. 3-U