I recently had 20 acres of my future home site select cut pretty much cut everything but the Oaks. I�m looking into burning come end of winter early spring. My question is what is the process before burning cut a fire line, get a permit, etc? Also do I want to get the fire as hot as possible or wil that kill my trees? Just looking for some ideas maybe a few opinions?

What's your goal of the burn? That will dictate your answer.

I�d probably find someone with experience to help you on the first burn or two. There�s a few variables and techniques that you need to understand before lighting up the woods....humidity, fuel loads, back burn, head fires, etc... You also need to make sure you have to ability to do something about it should the fire jump a break and get loose.

Put a really good firelane all the way around it. Get a burning permit from the forestry commission the day you are gonna burn. Get at least one drip torch and at least one helper.

The key to avoiding problems is to pick the right day. Pick a day 2 days after a front hits that produces rain and a cold front. You want the temperature to be cold, but most importantly have a steady N or NW wind of not more than 7 or 8 mph. Pick a day like this and the challenge will be to keep it burning, not losing control. There are only a few days like this each year, but these are the days for amateurs to burn. Leave other days to the pros.

Develop a written burning plan before the day comes. Find a weather site that forecasts hourly wind and humidity; these are the key things to watch. Humidity starts out high, and on a day like you want it will steadily drop until about 3 pm, and then will start rise.

For someone doing their first burn and with only 20 acres to burn, I would wait until 3 pm to start. Make sure that humidity is above 35% and rising when you start the fire. By starting then, you will avoid the hazardous time of day and conditions will be constantly becoming safer as you conduct the burn. A forester would tell you this is a terrible plan and won't produce the best results, and that would be right. However, your #1 objective in your case is to make certain you don't lose control of the fire, and this plan will accomplish that. It will also give you some real experience and confidence for future burns.

Start the fire by making a solid back fire right against your firelane on the downwind side. Let it burn 10 yards or so, then start dropping spot fires in a line parallel to the back fire and about 50 yards upwind of it. Watch it and make sure it isn't getting too hot as the fires meet. If it all looks good, go ahead and put lines every 50 yards or so all across the property.

If you start at 3 pm with humidity at 35% or so, you should finish by 5 pm and humidity will be in the 40s. You will have stumps and logs that will keep burning after the fire is complete, but everything will go out as humidity climbs above 50%.

Once again, this is not a plan a pro would use, but it will work and it will work safely. Sometimes I will get a perfect day to burn but can't find a helper, so I will use some variation of this method and burn by myself. I will start in the morning if I have help, but by waiting until humidity is rising I can safely burn alone. I've been burning about 100 acres a year for the past 12 years. I've had a couple of fires to get too hot and scortch a few trees, but I have never lost control of one. Picking the right day to burn and the right time of day is the key to safe fires. Good luck!

I wouldn't burn it as hot as possible with Oaks. I'd also want to make sure the brush piles of cut timber were away from the oaks.

If it is only a few scattered oaks then rake away from the base of the trees. Just my thoughts. We burn some hardwoods, but mostly for us it is pines.

God Bless,
David B.

We burn my whole place on a rotation every February

Usually have 3 guys. One drip torch, one on 4 wheeler with sprayer, one with backpack blower (used to use flappers until I figured out blower). Blower can accelerate the fire or put it out.

Great tool

Keep in mind fire usually wants to go down wind and up hill and plan accordingly

A beer drinking event right up there with bowling/tailgating/golf

Thanks, for the advice my goal is just to really clean all the leftovers from the cut and kill all the saplings and briars etc that have began to grow. Start preparing it for my future home maybe even go ahead and get some grass to start growing. Poorciuntrypreacher thank for all the advice. I�m starting to think to get the best burn I may hire someone

Also Is there anyone you would recommend or could I just contact the forestry commission for help?

I wouldn't recommend burning your oaks. Especially not early spring. Hardwoods and fire don't mix. Generally, if it doesn't kill them, they will get butt rot and the quality won't be any good. If you just thinned I'm sure the fuel load is heavy which means the fire is gonna burn hot and cause more damage to them. I doubt you would get a certified burner to burn it and I sure wouldn't try it if I didn't have any experience at it. Just my 2 cents

If all you have are oaks left, I wouldn't burn. I burned around some of mine and it did rot the bases of a few. That is not pretty. I would clean it up and make burn piles away from the oaks. It'll cost more but would be better. You could just push all the debris down to one corner and forget about. It'll rot down in a few years.

You can burn in those oaks and not harm them, I've done it. I believe a low, cool backing fire will get it done. Get the state Forestry Commission guys to help you.

. Get the state Forestry Commission guys to help you. [/quote]

They aren't gonna do it either..I will bet that. Yes burning hardwood has been done, yes it can be done, but it sounds like in his situation it isn't feasable to do. Gobbled has done it and has more experience with it than anybody I know. I have burned thousands of acres and I wouldn't do it to anybody's hardwood.

The oaks will survive but you will bust the bark of most of them.

They'll, ( Foresty Commish), do it in Jackson County, they've burned on my place twice over the last few years.

A friend burned a very similar situation mentioned. I checked it the next day for him. Really not sure what the exact conditions were but it did clean up the property nicely. He used a leaf blower for creating the fire lane.

Saying this I want to express, it is probably the most difficult especially for the inexperienced since the conditions needed depends on many variables. The scariest part is tall snags catching. That was what I was checking the next day for him, he'd cut several down.


We used to burn hardwoods every few years for turkey hunting. Nothing but a leaf blower for fire lanes and Bic lighter. Got laughed at but it worked. We did hurt some of the timber but not nearly to the degree I've been told we would. The conditions dictate what fire does.

A mulching service might be your best option.

If there is any logging debris close to or on the basis of the oaks you will probably have a problem. It would be best to get a front end loader or grapple machine and pull the crap to an open area to burn it.

I have thought about mulching it but there is a lot of large logs left over and I�m not sure how well it would work