Controlled field burn

[Julie Willard]

Hello, 

Does anyone have experience with doing controlled field burns? We're looking for someone to help us burn our future orchard field and perhaps the pasture field.

Thanks for any help or guidance,

Julie Willard 

Trail Harvest Farm 

717-512-1087 

[Kelly Gill]

Hi Julie,

You might find these links/resources about Rx burning in PA helpful if you have not explored them already

The Pennsylvania Prescribed Fire Council

Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (Todd Breininger tbrei...@pa.gov. Prescribed Fire Program Specialist for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Forestry)

The Pennsylvania Game Commission

The Nature Conservancy

Service Foresters

Natural Resources Conservation Service (PA)

Pennsylvania Prescribed Fire Standards

Best,

Kelly

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[Coville, Robbie]

Hi Julie,

 

Thanks for your interest in this, there’s certainly a need. Here’s some general information on support available:

 

Currently PA state agencies do not directly assist in private landowners conducting prescribed fires, except in some unique cases. There are a handful of private contractors that offer this service but none are on our public map of consulting foresters. Our suggestion would be to contact your local DCNR fire forester who can discuss options and risks. To find your local fire forester, contact your nearest State Forest District office, explain where you are and what you want to do, and the district staff should be able to connect you with a fire forester.

 

NRCS could help write a burn plan and cost-share the implementation, but this will be a multi-year process and is a regulated process. NRCS has offered this for several years, however this practice has only been implemented by NRCS in PA a small number of times, probably due to the high costs and lack of contractor/technical service providers.  NRCS maintains a list of technical service providers in PA, and there are 2 certified for prescribed burning. That list is attached.

 

Best wishes,

Robbie

 

 

Robbie Coville (he/him) | Ecosystem Products and Markets Specialist

PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

Bureau of Forestry | Rural & Community Forestry Section

William Penn State Forest District | Cell: 717-614-0503 | Email: rcov...@pa.gov

 

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[Julie Willard]

Thank you, hopefully I can find someone willing to teach or mentor us. Unfortunately, there are multiple groups to combat wildfire but teachers or mentors seen to be nonexistent. I find this challenging as a small farm looking to return to soil husbanding practices of years past.

The search continues, 

Julie Willard 

[Nitya Akeroyd]

Hi Julie,

Zach Elfers is in southeast PA and has some experience with using fire in land management- 

https://nafex.org/index.php/team/zach-elfers/

https://firesticks.org.au - this is an organization in Australia which teaches and promotes the value of the traditional burning practices of First Nations peoples in Australia.

The guy who helped found Firesticks Alliance is Victor Steffensen wrote a book Fire Country. Although Australian conditions are very different there are some underlying principles to the traditional burning practices he writes about which i think could translate to PA. Australian cultural burning practices are quite different from the slash and burn methods used in many tropical forest communities around the world as it is about maintaining a productive landscape on an ongoing basis.

Cheers, Nitya

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[Lloyd Traven]

John Courtney, from Kind Earth Growers of Kintnersville, PA (Bucks County) does a prescribed controlled burn every other year in their grass meadow and has lots of experience. Also, Longwood Gardens has a massive meadow that they do controlled burns on.

 

Lloyd R. Traven, President

Peace Tree Farm LLC

295 Park Drive W

Kintnersville, PA, USA 18930

(P) 610-847-8152

(F) 610-847-5287

(M) 610-217-2233

ll...@peacetreefarm.com

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