Janet Steele, Forestry & Natural Resources Agent
The southeast United States’ landscape has been shaped by fire since the pre-Paleoindian period. Prior to man living on the land, fire was started naturally by lightning strikes. Since thunderstorms primarily occur during summer, these wildfires favored species that could tolerate hot, fast-moving flames. Human settlement in the southeastern US has been estimated to have occurred from 13,000 to 10,000 BCE. Indigenous people saw the value of frequent burning, including enhancing habitat for wildlife, improving hunting conditions, reducing undergrowth for easier travel and safety, and clearing land for agriculture. Historic scarring on old-growth trees indicates that burning occurred as frequently as every 1 to 3 years in the Coastal Plain. Reports by early explorers to the region documented open forest conditions with extensive grasslands, which supported the 2 to 4 million buffalo that ranged east of the Mississippi until about 1800.
European settlers to the southeast continued using fire as a tool for many of the same reasons as the indigenous peoples. They introduced livestock dependent on tender young forages that followed frequent burning. Fire also kept shrubby vegetation and brush from encroaching on their farm fields. These land management practices continued mostly unchanged until logging came to the southeast.
After the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution depleted most northern states’ timber supply. By the late 1800s, the southeast became the source of lumber needed to build quickly growing cities and support the country’s westward expansion. By the end of World War I, most virgin timber in the region had been cut, and historical burning practices started to disappear. Fire suppression efforts began in the US in the early 1920s, as misperceptions grew about burning. Smokey Bear’s creation in the 1940s further stigmatized burning as his message on preventing “forest fires” spread.
Research began in South Georgia and north Florida in the 1920s to evaluate the response of prescribed fire in remnant populations of the longleaf pine ecosystem. Decades of these studies showed that frequent fire helped maintain the diversity and abundance of native species associated with longleaf pine forests, enhanced habitat for wildlife, and improved the natural regeneration of longleaf. This led to a better ecological understanding of the role of fire in the landscape of the southeastern US, and by the 1970s, prescribed burning began to be used more frequently as a land management tool. The 2021 National Prescribed Fire Use Survey (linked here) reported that 9.4 million acres were prescribed burned in 2020, with the southeast leading with 63% of the reported acres.
Fall is a good time to begin planning for dormant-season prescribed burns, which are the best option for introducing fire to a property without an existing burning regime. Guidance from a forestry professional or an experienced burner can help determine the design of burn blocks and establish fire breaks, estimate fuel loads and discuss burning techniques and fire weather. Prescribed burning is primarily used in pine stands of different ages and structures, and loblolly and longleaf pine vary in their response to fire. This is another good reason to seek assistance if you are not an experienced burner.
• The SC Forestry Commission offers firebreak plowing, prescribed burning, and standby services on a fee basis. Click here for more information.
• Forestry consultants may also provide prescribed burning services. Click here for more information.
• Prescribed Burn Associations/Cooperatives are also gaining in popularity. A recent article in the Clemson Extension FNR CU in the Woods newsletter described the benefits to private landowners of becoming involved in these groups. Click here to access that article.
