This Saturday was a great set of weather conditions for burning piles that we created in the summer of 2018 in the forest by “selective thining” and fuel reduction. There have been several good burn weekends this year – 2019. We are finding that by cutting up the branches and trees into smaller pieces before stacking into piles, the piles are denser and burn better. Also covering the piles with plastic after they have dried out for the summer, and before the fall rains come, makes the piles possible to burn when the rest of the forest is soaking wet or even covered in snow! We have done the plastic covering for several seasons now and are saving the plastic sheets for reuse. We just fold them up and store them in the shop or storage shed. Here are a couple more photos of forest controlled burning. Chipping would be nice to try, but that equipment is too expensive, not in the budget.
Here are a couple photos of the tools of the trade. When you are burning and the litter is dry enough to “creep burn” you must be very careful to not let the creep get to big or it will soon too big for you to be able to stop it! That is how a controlled burn turns into an out of control burn.
