Burning Question

We burned some mature pines a few weeks ago that hadn’t been burned in several years and apparently it got hotter than we thought in a few places. I was told some trees were brown. I don’t know if the entire tree was brown or just part as I haven’t laid my eyes on it yet.

Question is, how much damage can a mature, 20+ year old lob-lolly pine take before it dies? Will it survive if only part of the canopy is brown? What about if all of the canopy is brown?

I don't have any pictures handy, but I have scorched pines from the bottom to the tip top and had them come back ok. I once had a small strip on the side of a hill get super hot and really scorched that area. It was maybe 1/4 acre in size, and there were a 3 or 4 trees that didn't look like they were gonna make it. I was doing a select cut the next winter so I just marked those trees to be cut. I don't think I have ever completely killed a big tree.

What's discouraging is trying to kill loblolly out of a 5 yr old longleaf stand. I got a fire hot as hades last winter on a day with 18% humidity and I thought I had surely killed most of the loblolly. I think there's 3 or 4 trees that died; the rest look as healthy as ever. I suspect your trees are ok, but post again in the summer and let us know. I could be wrong.

Thank you for the info, it’s making me feel a bit better. I’m going to look at them this weekend so I will report back what’s it looking like. This tract is completely flat so I’m hoping what the guy saw was just browning of some lower limbs and the tops are still fine.

They will brown up and have a needle cast, but they will come back.

I've knocked all the needles off of em and still had them come back fine. I wouldn't recommend it because it stresses them but usually they are fine. What is worse is scorching the bark high up. Fires can linger around the bottom few feet and split the cambium. If they start to "bleed" sap, that is a bad sign.



Rule is, if you pay for them to be planted, you can kill them by showing them a match. If they came in free, they will take a hot fire over the top and still be fine

Lol, I think that is the absolute truth.

And it's getting harder for me to manage a burn with every birthday, and the way I have the place chopped up into all those small harvest units and then burn units makes it even harder to manage, and harder to sell it too. I have often wished that I gotten you to clearcut it when you first looked at it in 2006. I would have made more money and had far less hassle. And I might not have wrecked my back on that dozer.

Oh well, live and learn. If anyone reading is on the fence of how to manage a small tract, just let gobbler do it.

You wouldn't have had nearly as much fun!!

Update: Scorched probably 7 or 8 trees where the fire jumped up and got real hot right before a fire break. Out of those a couple are completely brown and will probably die. Overall a lot less damage than I was expecting. Besides that one little patch the rest of the burn looks great.

Please get back with us in the summer. I betcha that even those 2 with 100% crown scortch will be green then. It might weaken them enough that beetles will eventually get them, but all of mine have always greened back up.

But my burning experience is limited to 2 counties and I could be wrong.

10-4. If I remember I’ll post an update. They may survive if it stays as wet as it is. The ground down there holds moisture really well

Little over 5, almost 6 month update:

Every tree that was scorched has completely filled back out and they are dark green now. Even the ones that got scorched almost all the way to the very top. I'm sure this may not always be the case, but for us we had a 100% recovery rate.

Good deal, thanks for posting! We will have a good thread to refer people to the next time it happens.