Unlock the secrets to managing your land through controlled burning. Our latest episode we offer tips on burning and strategies to help you find success in the field. We will guide you through clearing fire lanes, weather conditions, and choosing the right time for ignition to ensure a safe and successful burn. Whether it's leveraging high humidity or opting for a backing fire, you'll gain insights that have come from experience. The discussion isn't just about the burn itself; it's about the meticulous preparation and thoughtful execution that make the difference between a beneficial burn and a disastrous one.
When the flames die down, the conversation heats up around the crucial topic of burn safety and the indispensable shield of proper insurance. Gather 'round the fire as we share the fellowship of safe burning practices, ensuring that the legacy of land stewardship is carried on with joy and responsibility.
Unlock the secrets to managing your land through controlled burning. Our latest episode we offer tips on burning and strategies to help you find success in the field. We will guide you through clearing fire lanes, weather conditions, and choosing the right time for ignition to ensure a safe and successful burn. Whether it's leveraging high humidity or opting for a backing fire, you'll gain insights that have come from experience. The discussion isn't just about the burn itself; it's about the meticulous preparation and thoughtful execution that make the difference between a beneficial burn and a disastrous one.
When the flames die down, the conversation heats up around the crucial topic of burn safety and the indispensable shield of proper insurance. Gather 'round the fire as we share the fellowship of safe burning practices, ensuring that the legacy of land stewardship is carried on with joy and responsibility.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to Balance Habitat. Presented by HabCode. This podcast is geared towards land managers as well as investors that are looking for a source to learn more about forest and wildlife management, especially for hunting. But we'll also explore how the land connects us to something bigger, like our Creator, and how to use that connection to benefit wildlife. If you're into finding, developing, selling and getting the most out of the land, this podcast is for you. We don't have all the answers and that's the fun part about designing a product. Hope you enjoy. Let's do it. Alright, y'all. This is a little bonus podcast.
Speaker 1:
Since it's fire season, it's time to go. We figured we'd throw a few quick tips, strategies, things that you need to be looking at in fire. Fire is I love fire, fire is. To me, it's like a Harley Davidson. It's a little dangerous and it does a lot. You see the benefits from it immediately, but over the years I've learned how to use fire and I've learned how to respect fire. Really. Let's just talk it. Let's go into the. You know you got to have a plan. You need to. You need to have insurance. I'm sorry, but you need to have burning insurance to make sure that when your smoke goes somewhere, you're covered and you know if something happens it gets on the neighbor. You've got liability coverage to take care of you. It happens Fire lanes when you're putting in your fire lanes. If there's any grass that's in that fire lane, it's not a fire lane.
Speaker 2:
So any leaves or you know, whatever it may be, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Anything that can burn doesn't need to be in that fire lane. When you, when you there's, when I'm, when I'm evaluating a spot to burn, I'm gonna go and look at my most critical spots that I think that the fire could jump. If it were to jump Every fire you are, you're on, you need to be expecting a jump, you know, and if you do that, you plan out that way, you'll have less issues. So I'm thinking about one burn I did a couple years ago and it's it's kind of rolling topography it's got. It's got some grasses in it, it's got some saplings in it, it's about a four-year-old stand that is gonna get really hot.
Speaker 1:
That wind, it doesn't really matter. Like it was supposed to be like a, it was supposed to be like a south wind, but because of where that, the way that the topography hid in that it turned into a straight west wind, which was the most critical issue. There was a pine plantation on a neighbor right there and so that's gonna be spots that I'm gonna go do little test fires and it might be in my fire lane, it might be in a spot that I can test it and say you know what's happening, you know is the wind, what's the wind doing, and so if I find I'm gonna locate those areas and I'm gonna go ahead when it's 10 o'clock in the morning, that humidity is high, humidity is your friend. Okay, you got to have humidity down to get a good keel. But if it's early in the day or if you have a critical spot like that, where you know the wind's gonna get crazy right in there, burn it with that humidity up. That way you're gonna get the wind. The wind's gonna do things for you.
Speaker 2:
It just eliminates the risk of, you know, burning that area when you have a low humidity.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, if, instead of burning that at two o'clock and that being your prime two o'clock burn you go ahead and knock in that out and even if you you know, if you want to be really safe and fire landing that up really good, give yourself a little bit more space in case you get that. You get that jump. Okay. There's so many different strategies you can use. A backing fire is gonna kill way more than a head fire is gonna kill. You may think that a big, huge flame is gonna do that, but the longer that fire sits on that, that plant, the more likely it's gonna kill. So if you can back back, run a back and fire. Sometimes I'll run a back and fire and the weather conditions are so good, I'll let that sucker back all the way through there, knowing how to use back, knowing weather, knowing mix and heights, making sure you get a permit from the forestry commission and you know everybody's like well, I don't want to do that because if I get gets out, then you know, don't know who did it.
Speaker 1:
They're gonna investigate that anyway and it's gonna be pretty easy to figure that out. So you, your, the Forestry Commission is your friend. They're gonna have eyes in the sky, they're gonna be checking on your burn throughout the day and it's a white plane around here. I know the sound so well. It's like, oh, that's them, and that's a good thing. And so making sure that you do that, making sure that you don't burn. Don't burn if you don't have the right conditions. You'll use up all your fuel, fuel load and you want to accomplish anything.
Speaker 2:
That's right so that's.
Speaker 1:
Let's see here what else, hey, equipment, drip torches, I'll tell y'all I've come to a appreciate a metal five gallon bucket that you can get from forces suppliers or that's like has a. I don't like rubber, you know plastic five gallon buckets. When you're burning you know they think catch fire, whatever. So, making sure you have good equipment, good, good gloves, those kind of things, yeah, that's about it basically, well, I mean, I think the biggest thing is just, you know knowing what to burn.
Speaker 2:
You know, think through what you're gonna burn, think through if you want it to be a growing season or a dormant season or whatever it may be.
Speaker 2:
Think through all that and you know if you want to experiment with, you know, if all you've been doing is dormant season and you want to try a little growing season, you know, do a little two and a half acre plot, just see what it does. I think that, I mean, I think that's the biggest thing is, fire can be overwhelming, especially if you haven't done it a lot and if you're just starting out. But reach out to people, you know that they'll help you. I mean, if you need help, you know figuring out burn conditions, or if you're, if you need help, you know trying to figure out what to burn, or you know where to burn. I mean all of that people can help you with that. And so don't don't be, you know, overwhelmed by the facts that you know fire can, you know, jump the line and you know, can cause all sorts of problems. It break it down and you know, just slow down with it. And you know, I think that. I think that'll help you along the way yeah, I will.
Speaker 1:
I mean, it goes back to what we're talking about a few days ago, which is, you know, plan it out. You plan it out, you plan out. What is it? What's the purpose of that burn? Is it for timber production or is it for is it for wildlife? It's for wildlife.
Speaker 1:
I mean, I know you want to burn that hundred acres and I know you want to go ahead and knock that out, break that thing down into like sections and burn it throughout the year and even add maybe, instead of doing a hundred, do 30. You know we just we don't, you don't think small or sometimes, yeah, all right, so cool. So, yeah, I mean going back to what Jack said reach out to people, use land management. You are gonna find more success, finding people around you that are doing the same thing, that have learned. If you, you know, one thing that I'm offering this year is you know, there's a lot of people that come and do your burns right and and, and I don't really. I like when I burn, I like to burn with people. It's fun, I like to, it's a, it's fellowship. And so, you know, if you don't have the insurance but want to have ex expertise and have that insurance. I'm offering a. You know, basically, you hire me for the day, I'll help you with the burn, guide you through it and make sure that you don't have those liability issues, make sure that you have all those things covered, because it just takes one mistake and you're gonna be you'll be paying for it for a while.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so all right, so that's it. That's about it. We just want to give y'all a quick y'all, y'all go get it done. You're right. This is, yeah, this is the season. This is, this is fire season and this is some of the. To me, this is the most. This is the best time of the year. This is the time that it just everything's been dead and you're out there working the land. So, yeah, y'all be careful, have fun. If you need us, call us, be glad to help, see you.