Burning kudzu on Perkins Game Lands

Yesterday, with the help of Justin and Brian from the Morganton crew along with our regional forester Dean, we performed a prescribed fire on the Perkins game land in order to try to eradicate kudzu patches.


The patches need to be burned off, then we will allow the kudzu to begin growing again, and then we will go back and apply a special herbicide to kill the new sprouts. Obviously, we took care of the burning!



The burns went well, however we did have an unusual hazard on the fireline. Perkins is owned by Duke Power and there used to be homes on this tract of land. Fortunately for Jim and Brian, they were able to stop the Kubota before ending up in this septic tank!
Thanks to Justin, Brian, and Dean for all their help.

what has THE D-7 Crew done lately? (Jan-March 2008)

JANUARY
Building Maintenance:
Performed routine depot and site maintenance tasks.

Boundary Maintenance:
Chopped, posted, and painted 2 miles of boundary on TCGL.

Road and Trail Maintenance:
Cleaned 25 culverts on TCGL.
Closed gates on access roads on BCGL.
Cleared debris and graded 1.5 miles of road on TCGL.
Spread 120 tons of gravel on TCGL.

Maintenance, Repair & Purchase of Non-Highway Equipment:
Crew performed repairs, inventory, and maintenance on various non-highway equipment.

Firebreaks:
Installed 0.5 mile firelane on MRGL.

Nest Structures:
Constructed and installed 2 wood duck boxes at Hunting Creek Swamp.
Checked and cleaned 30 wood duck boxes at Hunting Creek Swamp.
Checked and cleaned 5 wood duck boxes on TCGL.

Vegetation Control:
Prepared plans and equipment for upcoming burning.
Conducted 3 burns totaling 32 acres on TCGL.
Conducted 2 burns totaling 76 acres on MRGL.

Planning, Coordination, Evaluation & Reporting:
Routine office work, purchasing, and reporting.
Crew attended District 7 public hearing.

Maintenance, Repair, and Purchase of Highway Vehicles:
Scheduled maintenance of highway vehicles.

Miscellaneous State Funded Activities:
Crewmembers attended wildland fire course in Morganton.
Crew worked towards safety standard compliance.


FEBRUARY
Development of Clearings:
Constructed 1 acre opening on MRGL.

Bridge Maintenance:
Picked up bridge materials from vendor in Albemarle.

Building Maintenance:
Performed routine depot and site maintenance tasks.
Hauled depot garbage and recyclables to collection site.

Dam and Dike Maintenance:
Removed trees and other vegetation from 3 pond dams on TCGL.

Road and Trail Maintenance:
Cleaned 104 culverts on TCGL.
Closed gates on access roads on MRGL and TCGL.
Cleared storm debris from TCGL roads.
Placed 28 tons of aggregates for road stabilization on TCGL.
Spread 132 tons of gravel and graded 2 miles of road on TTGL.
Spread 45 tons of gravel on MRGL.
Installed 2 replacement gates on TCGL.

Maintenance, Repair & Purchase of Non-Highway Equipment:
Crew performed repairs, inventory, and maintenance on various non-highway equipment.

Nest Structures:
Constructed and installed 2 wood duck boxes at Hunting Creek Swamp.
Checked and cleaned 33 wood duck boxes at Hunting Creek Swamp.
Checked and cleaned 1 wood duck boxes on TCGL.

Tree and Shrub Plantings:
Released 20 persimmon trees on TCGL.

Vegetation Control:
Prepared plans and equipment for upcoming burning.
Conducted burn totaling 44 acres on MRGL.

Planning, Coordination, Evaluation & Reporting:
Routine office work, purchasing, and reporting.
Crew attended pesticide recertification class.

Maintenance, Repair, and Purchase of Highway Vehicles:
Scheduled maintenance of highway vehicles.

Miscellaneous State Funded Activities:
Two crewmembers performed random drug testing in Mt. Airy.
Crewmember attended EDC meeting in Raleigh.


MARCH
Building Maintenance:
Performed routine depot and site maintenance tasks.
Hauled depot garbage and recyclables to collection site.

Dam and Dike Maintenance:
Removed trees and other vegetation from one pond dam on TCGL.

Road and Trail Maintenance:
Cleaned 10 culverts on TCGL.
Placed 63 tons of aggregates for road stabilization on TCGL.
Replaced two culverts on TCGL access roads.
Closed gates to access roads on TCGL.

Maintenance, Repair & Purchase of Non-Highway Equipment:
Crew performed repairs, inventory, and maintenance on various non-highway equipment.

Herbaceous Plantings:
Planted six miles of firelanes and openings totaling 8 acres on MRGL.
Spread one ton of fertilizer on firelanes and openings on MRGL.

Tree and Shrub Plantings:
Released one persimmon tree on TCGL.

Vegetation Control:
Conducted 3 burns totaling 137 acres on MRGL.
Conducted five burns totaling 137 acres on TCGL.
Assisted Marion crew in conducting 58 acre burn on Linville River tract.

Planning, Coordination, Evaluation & Reporting:
Routine office work, purchasing, and reporting.

Maintenance, Repair, and Purchase of Highway Vehicles:
Scheduled maintenance and repair of breakdowns on highway vehicles.

The Bamboo Patch

Thanks to the recent lifting of the burning ban we were able to get out and do some much needed burning of a bamboo patch to try to reclaim a significant portion of one of our fields on the Thurmond Chatham Game Lands.

Jim started the day by starting a small "test fire" so we could evaluate conditions.

After determining that the conditions were favorable and that the field would burn, we proceeded with lighting the field around the bamboo patch to give us a good amount of "black" around the bamboo patch.

* Note the bamboo in the background.

Once the majority of the field was black, we began dripping fire closer to the bamboo itself and once it got started it burned very well.



Bamboo tends to burn quite impressively. It makes very loud popping and cracking noises as it burns. A quick watch and listen (make sure speakers are on) to this small video will give you an idea!

After the fire burnt through the majority of the patch we began "mop up". This is where we extinguish any hotspots and/or open flame so as to not allow for flare ups or spot overs (getting out of the intended burn area) after we leave the area.


The bamboo burnt quite hot in the very middle of the patch and eliminated almost every single stalk of the bamboo. The outer edges still had some standing plants but due to the heat of the fire most of them were likely killed. Sometime in the near future we will likely push these remaining stalks over to get them on the ground and burn them to completely reclaim the field.


More pictures and videos of the bamboo patch burning can be found HERE.

Good Luck

Our temporary worker of the past two seasons finished his time with us today. We all hope that since he finally has his required two years of experience now that he will be able to get on permanent with one of our crews throughout the state. Thanks for your hard work and dedication Shane! And good luck in the future.

Depot pictures

Pictures of the Wilkes Wildlife Management Depot.