SFM-PBA Burn Blog

Kress Farm Garden Preserve On Thursday, March 27th, 2025 we conducted a burn on the restored prairie at Kress Farm Garden Preserve. Prescribed burning is a management tool used on prairie sites. Fire was used here for three primary purposes: To suppress or kill those species that are not native to the prairie; To reduce accumulated plant litter. To improve soil health by recycling nutrients from charred plants. In addition to SFM-PBA, we had plenty of help to conduct the burn. Several other groups also helped including the Hillsboro Lions Club, Missouri Master Naturalists, a few members of the Middle Mississippi Prescribed Burn Association and many Kress Farm Members. Disced Fire Line The weather cooperated and was in prescription. A fire line was established around the field - a 6-foot-wide disced area between the field and tree line. Water and blowers were positioned at six stations around the perimeter. The fires w...

On Tuesday, March 25 th the SFM PBA helped me successfully execute a 20-acre prescribed woodland burn on my property.  We tuned the ignition plan to accommodate winds from the northwest with anticipated gusts of up to 25 mph.  Ignition started on the north side with Team A advancing east and then south while Team B ignited the western side of the burn. To ensure that the eastern and southern edges were completely blackened before the wind-driven head fire advanced from the west, Team A always stayed one checkpoint ahead of Team B. The north, east and southern edges were all blackened before the steep gully on the Southwest side was ignited. Apart from the northern food plot and the woods immediately northeast of it, the unit was completely burned. In those areas short green grass and a lack of continuous leaf litter prevented the fire from carrying. The lower food plot burned particularly well. Note: all vegetation in both fields will be killed with herbicides in advance of p...

Memo: Saturday, 3/22/25 Regarding: Jeff Roderick’s Burn at 300 Thomas Road, Farmington, MO 63640 The SFM-PBA successfully completed the organization's fourth successful burn today! The burn site was prepared beginning in late February, with final preparations completed the day before and the morning of the burn. Preparations included: Blowing out all fire lines. Cutting snags. Scattering and burning piles of cut trees. Flagging the site including labeling ignition, ending, and reference points per the burn plan. Staging of equipment including 5 backpack sprayers and 6 drip torches. 1 chain saw, 6 four-gallon buckets of water, 1 forty-gallon UTV sprayer. Fueling and testing all equipment. SFM-PBA burn team: Cody, Byron, Ted, Dennis, Travis, Russell, Shannon, Christine, John, Traci, Jeff. Guests: Sue Roderick and Allison Bowman East MDC trainer: Jan Dellamano (PHC Retired) 9:00 am: A safety and pre-burn planning meeting was cond...

Today the SFM-PBA completed our first burn executed with only PBA members and PBA equipment. We were very aware of the possibility of gusts today and changed our plan of attack accordingly. We burned 11 acres with a >97% burn coverage in just about 4 hours. The reason it took this long is because we backfired the area using EW strips advancing into a NNW wind with steady speeds of 5-7mph and occasional gusts to 11mph. In order to minimize the risk of gusts blowing embers across our eastern fire line we kept the length of active fire along the eastern edge very short. The biggest excitement of the day was when the dead end of a 6-inch diameter oak limb 15-20 off the ground burst into flames. The limb was inside the burn unit but adjacent to our vulnerable eastern edge. Our water spray unit was able to reach the branch and extinguish the fire but if it had been 5 feet higher, it could have been a different story.  It was a serious reminder that all it takes is o...