Fire Management
The Friends of the Apalachicola National Forest recommend that the Forest Service should endeavor to burn 200,000 acres on average each year in the Apalachicola National Forest with an emphasis on burns during the historic “natural” (i.e. non-anthropogenic) burn season. Based on tree-ring fire scar data in particular, the natural burn season in the longleaf pine ecosystem in north Florida primarily spans the period June through July with fewer fires in late May and August. The peak natural burn period as identified by fire scar data coincides with the transition period between spring drought when fuels are still dry and drainages are not yet flooded and do not act as an impediment to fire spread and summer with typical afternoon thunderstorms. It is presumed most organisms in the longleaf pine ecosystem are adapted to fires in this season.
Burning 200,000 acres per year corresponds to an average fire return interval (FRI) of three years given approximately 600,000 burnable acres in ANF. On average, this is still too long, since tree-ring data indicate a natural FRI of 1-2 years and long-term monitoring of experimental burn plots shows that FRI greater than two years typically lead to shrub or sprout dominance and declines in herb and overall plant diversity. Thus, it is necessary to prioritize burning of the most critical sites. Our position is that the life cycles and requirements of individual rare and endangered species should be considered when generating prescribed burn plans for stands and compartments. In the case of federally endangered plants and animals the Endangered Species Act mandates that such planning take place to reach recovery targets. For rare and endangered species without federal protections Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) tracked species should be the highest priority followed by globally rare species as identified by NatureServe with rankings of G3 or lower. Finally, developing prescribed fire plans to meet the needs of narrowly endemic species should be given high priority although perhaps not to the same extent if they are locally common. We appreciate that targeting burns for every rare species is likely impossible, but we believe including species rarity in the planning and prioritization process will be productive. There may be substantial overlap between rare species planning and Ecological Condition rankings as produced by the ECM model, so ECM may be a useful tool for prioritizing prescribed burns.
Although applying prescribed fire in the natural season (June through July) should be emphasized, our position is that fire management should take place year-round and on every available burn day to reach the 200,000-acre target. Burn days not suitable for large scale burning, e.g., with limited smoke dispersal, could be used for more local or targeted burns, e.g. for a small critically endangered plant or animal population.
We appreciate the phenomenal effort by ANF fire personnel to maintain the needed fire regime in the face of numerous challenges. You are our heroes, and this statement is not meant as a critique but to clarify our own position as a group, so you know where we are coming from and do not provide frustratingly diverse points of view at meetings and in comments. To the extent that you can help us identify limiting factors for burning in terms of funding, person power, regulations, etc., we can work to bypass those bottlenecks.