Perkins game lands are our eastern most game lands in District 7. It is Duke Power land that is leased for the game lands program. We mainly manage this game land as a place for dove hunting but other game is also abundant there including, but not limited to, deer, turkey, and quail. We maintain 20 some acres of dove fields each year, as well as, patches and other openings of native warm season grasses.
We also occasionally get to do some pine understory burning, which is what we conducted this past week. This burn was done on about 25 acres of a mature loblolly pine stand. Since this was an understory burn, we did not want the fire "hot". This meant that the firing technique we used was a backing fire.
Backing fires are lit on the upwind side of the burn and the wind is used to force the fire to slowly "back" thru the burning block. Occasionally, some "stripping" is/was needed to help the fire along. On this particular burn, we dropped some "spot fires".
Also, since we did not want the fire to burn very hot, we began the prescribed burn later in the evening as the humidity was going back up. This helped us to attain the results we were looking for and also meant that the burn would go on into the night.
Here is a video of the fire backing it's way thru the stand.
Backing fires are lit on the upwind side of the burn and the wind is used to force the fire to slowly "back" thru the burning block. Occasionally, some "stripping" is/was needed to help the fire along. On this particular burn, we dropped some "spot fires".
