Prescribed Burning

Prescribed burning is an important silvicultural tool with a wide variety of uses in forest management. Prescribed burning, also called prescribed fire or controlled burning, is defined as "fire applied in a skillful manner, under exacting weather conditions, in order to achieve planned objectives with minimum damage and at an acceptable cost" (Wade and Lundsford 1988).

While prescribed burning has been used widely in "flatwoods" regions of the southeastern United States, it is a relatively new forest treatment in the southern Appalachians. Gaps remain in our knowledge of how fire should be used to maintain and restore fire-dependent communities in this region (Van Lear and Waldrop 1988, Buckner and Turrill 1999). The current knowledge on prescribed burning in the southern Appalachians is reviewed in the following sections:

• Uses Of Prescribed Fire In Forest Management: In the southern Appalachians, the primary uses of prescribed burning are for hazard reduction, pine regeneration, hardwood regeneration, and management of competing vegetation. These uses, as well as less common uses, such as improving wildlife habitat, are discussed in this section.
• Environmental Effects of Prescribed Burning: Fires, of both natural and anthropogenic origin, have known biotic and abiotic effects on ecosystem properties and the environment. This section reviews the effects of fire on vegetation, wildlife, soils, nutrient cycling, water quality, air quality, and humans.
• Conducting Prescribed Burns: There are several concepts forest managers should be aware of before attempting to conduct prescribed burns. They should understand: (1) how weather, fuel, and topography affect fire behavior; (2) different firing techniques (heading fires, backing fires, and flanking fires); (3) smoke management guidelines and prediction models to help reduce the atmospheric impacts of prescribed fires; and, (4) the steps involved in planning, preparing, executing, and evaluating a safe burn.
• Management Issues in Prescribed Burning: Although ther is much evidence to justify reintroduction of fire to the southern Appalachian landscape, managing fire is an extremely complicated and dynamic task. Currently, forest managers are equipped with less research knowledge and management guidelines for using prescribed fire in Appalachian forests than in other forests in the South. The following sections summarize the current state of using prescribed fire in the southern Appalachians and suggest different approaches and strategies for reintroducing fire to southern Appalachian ecosystems.