By Robert Pore
robert.pore@theindependent.com

While wildfires happen in Nebraska every year, sometimes those fires are set on purpose and controlled to benefit the landowner, whether it's for improving grazing land, improving wildlife habitat or controlling weeds and cedar trees.

And this time of year, before planting season begins, the prairie can sometimes be ablaze with these small prescribed burns.

Don Reeves of Central City, who farms in Merrick County, said more and more ranchers are using controlled fire, also known as "prescribed burns," as a pasture and range management tool.

Reeves is one of 60 owners of pasture land in six counties who have formed the Central Nebraska Prescribed Burn Association to help others learn how to plan and carry out pasture burns.

He said the association provides training in how to write burn plans, what equipment is necessary, how to carry out burns correctly, what risks can be avoided, and what risks must be managed.

He said the association recently completed two prescribed burn workshops, and it plans to conduct two each successive year.

"Association members assist each other in carrying out their respective prescribed burns in a cooperative manner," Reeves said. "Novices, as most members are at the beginning, also gain experience by taking part in two or more burns under trained leadership in preparation for conducting their own burns."

The Nebraska Prescribed Fire Safety Council is reminding anyone interested in controlled or prescribed burning that safe burning takes time and preparation.

According to Dave Carr, president of the Nebraska Prescribed Fire Safety Council, if you want to burn safely, be sure to have enough people on hand.

"The idea that a prescribed burn can be accomplished with just a few people to help is pure fiction, and any such burn is a disaster waiting to happen," he said. "In no case should any organized burn take place with less than six people," according to the council.

According to Carr, with specialized equipment and hard boundaries such as mineral soil or open water, some small burns (40 acres or less) can be accomplished with five people, but a burn crew always needs an extra person in case someone has a health problem.

To back up the CNPBA and others planning pasture burns, Reeves said, Pheasants Forever has equipped two mobile prescribed burn fire trailers that can be towed to burn sites.

He said each unit contains most of the equipment and gear needed to safely conduct prescribed burns: two self-contained 250 gallon sprayer units that slide into a pickup, with gas engines and pumps, to be used in containing fire; fire ignition tools; handheld fire control tools; protective clothing; two-way radios; and a mini weather station.

One trailer has priority for use by CNPBA members. The other is available for use statewide and will be an incentive for the creation of other burn associations, according to Pete Berthelsen of Pheasant Forever.

Reeves said CNPBA does not "conduct" burns, either for association members or for other landowners.

"Parties unable or not wishing to manage their own burns may hire experienced crews to carry out their burn, such as the Knopik family in Nance County, who have the necessary equipment and several years of experience, with no escaped fires. In all instances, liability for damage from escaped fires remains with the landowner," Reeves said.

He said specialists, including Jim Lott of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in St. Paul; Berthelsen; Carr, who is also a burn specialist at Central Platte Natural Resource District in Grand Island; and other conservationists, have encouraged and supported the Central Nebraska Prescribed Burn Association in getting started over the past two years.

CNPBA has approved 17 cooperative burns for this spring's burn season, which began in mid-March and will extend through early May.

"At least eight deliberately set pasture fires that escaped in Central Nebraska during the past two weeks serve as vivid reminders of the importance of careful planning and execution of burns on rangeland," Reeves said. "Although none of these fires caused loss of life or serious injury or property loss, fire crews, adjoining property, and volunteer firefighters were at risk in putting them out. None of these escaped burns had been presented for CNPBA approval."

Carr said a concern when it comes to prescribed burns is the weather.

"A few recent fires have been conducted during periods of unsafe weather conditions," Carr said. "In order to be really clear with what the weather is going to be, it's not enough to listen to the evening or morning news."

Carr said it's critical that a burn manager go online to research the weather as much as possible. The National Weather Service has several Web-based resources, including Web sites for the Hastings and North Platte offices, he said.