Because of its many benefits to wildlife and its relative cost efficiency, fire is a land manager’s best tool to improve wildlife habitat.

During his exploration of the southern United States in 1777, naturalist William Bartram described fields and forests that were greatly influenced by fire (Figure 1):

• "This plain is mostly a forest of the great long-leaved pine the earth covered with grass, interspersed with an infinite variety of herbaceous plants, and embellished with extensive savannas, always green…"

• "… riding through high open, pine forests, green lawns and flowery savannas in youthful verdure and gaity, having been lately burnt, but now overrun with a green enamelled carpet …"

For thousands of years, much of North Carolina burned every 1 to 10 ten years either at the hands of humans or from lightning ignitions. Indigenous peoples used fire to shape southern forests and grasslands—to drive game, improve forage for wildlife, clear land for cultivation, enhance travel corridors, and reduce the risk of wildfires. Early European settlers readily adopted many of these burning practices to improve grazing conditions, reduce fuel loads, increase visibility of snakes and predators, and enhance access.

Figure 1. Early explorers observed open pine savannas and woodlands.

T. Sharpe

×

Figure 1. Early explorers observed open pine savannas and woodlands.

T. Sharpe

Print Image

Wildlife biologists such as Herbert Stoddard recognized the value of fire as a tool to conserve habitat for many wildlife species as early as the 1920s. Many of North Carolina's plants and animals adapt well to fire because much of the state's lands burned frequently for thousands of years. Fire has value to wildlife in many contexts.

• Grasses, legumes, and other herbaceous plants germinate and flower following a fire, harboring insects and producing seeds beneficial to quail, turkeys, and songbirds (Figure 2). The lush growth provides cover for small mammals and young turkeys and quail (Figure 3).

• Fire burns away much of the leaf litter on the forest floor and exposes insects and seeds. Many wildlife species move into recently burned areas to feed on these newly available foods.

• Many shrubs produce more fleshy fruit two to five years after a fire than they would if they had been in an area that had not been burned.

• Young hardwoods and herbaceous forbs that sprout back after a fire have more available protein and phosphorus and are more palatable to white-tailed deer and eastern cottontails than their unburned counterparts (Figure 4).

• Low ground cover and patches of shrubs and sprouted trees are typical of frequently burned areas. This varied pattern of vegetation provides a mosaic of protective cover and abundant food for a variety of animals.

Many of the plant and animal species of greatest conservation concern in the South are dependent upon or assisted by fire (Table 1). Longleaf pine forests, once occupying 90 million acres in the South, now cover only about 6 percent of their original range. Birds such as Bachman's sparrows and brown-headed nuthatches favor open pine stands (that is, pine woodlands) with a dense herbaceous ground cover present only in frequently burned areas. Many of the South's increasingly rare reptiles and amphibians, like the gopher tortoise, pine snake, and pine barrens treefrog, prefer forests frequently burned by fire. The long-term survival of these animals is in question if prescribed fire does not persist.

Figure 2. Northern bobwhite feed on the seeds and fruits that produced by herbaceous plants produce following a prescribed fire.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission file photo

×

Figure 2. Northern bobwhite feed on the seeds and fruits that produced by herbaceous plants produce following a prescribed fire.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission file photo

Print Image

Figure 3. Prescribed fires promote lush growth of grasses and forbs that provide food and cover for pollinating insects, small mammals, and young turkeys and quail.

C. Moorman

×

Figure 3. Prescribed fires promote lush growth of grasses and forbs that provide food and cover for pollinating insects, small mammals, and young turkeys and quail.

C. Moorman

Print Image

Figure 4. White-tailed deer browse the nutritious sprouts that grow after a prescribed fire.

Thomas G. Barnes, University of Kentucky

×

Figure 4. White-tailed deer browse the nutritious sprouts that grow after a prescribed fire.

Thomas G. Barnes, University of Kentucky

Print Image

Figure 5. Fox squirrels prefer the pine savannas and woodlands maintained by frequent prescribed burns.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission file photo

×

Figure 5. Fox squirrels prefer the pine savannas and woodlands maintained by frequent prescribed burns.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission file photo

Print Image

Figure 6. Pitcher plants require frequent fire to reduce competition from other plants, especially woody species.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission file photo

×

Figure 6. Pitcher plants require frequent fire to reduce competition from other plants, especially woody species.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission file photo

Print Image

Not usually! Animals may be temporarily displaced following a prescribed burn, but most can avoid direct harm from fire. Deer, foxes, and bobcats run; birds and bats fly; and mice, lizards, snakes, and salamanders go underground into burrows or under rocks and fallen logs as a fire approaches (Figure 7). Some animals, such as slow-moving turtles and snakes, can be killed during a wildfire or prescribed burn; however, many turtles survive fires by burrowing underground or using their shells for protection. Nestlings or young birds also are often vulnerable to fires. In most cases, however, the overall benefit to wildlife from increases in food and cover by burning far outweighs any loss due to direct mortality of individual animals. Ironically, the absence of fire may cause greater harm to wildlife, especially fire-adapted species. Environmental changes resulting from fire exclusion can result in low reproduction and eventual displacement of some wildlife. Today, many wildlife species are imperiled by habitat loss resulting from infrequent burning.

Figure 7. Small animals like this northern red salamander escape from fires by hiding under rocks and logs or in underground burrows.

Thomas G. Barnes, University of Kentucky

×

Figure 7. Small animals like this northern red salamander escape from fires by hiding under rocks and logs or in underground burrows.

Thomas G. Barnes, University of Kentucky

Print Image

• Frequent fires help remove leaf litter and downed deadwood on the forest floor, which reduces the risk of severe wildfire.

• Burning reduces the thickness of leaf litter, which allows the germination and establishment of desirable plants, including longleaf pine and many herbaceous plants beneficial to wildlife.

• Frequently burned forests contain fewer chiggers and ticks.

• Burning releases many types of nutrients (nitrogen is a notable exception) into the soil, thereby increasing fertility.

• Burning generally lowers soil acidity, making nitrogen-fixing legumes more abundant; legumes produce seeds eaten by quail, turkey, and songbirds, and often are browsed by deer and rabbits.

• Burning can control plants that compete with commercially desirable tree species.

• Frequently burned forests attain a park-like appearance, becoming woodlands or savannas with a high tree canopy, sparse midstory, and a sun-dappled, lush ground cover, which many people find attractive.

• Burned forests are more open and easier to walk through than unburned forests, improving access for hunters, birdwatchers, hikers, and other users.

Fire-protection policies implemented in the 1920s led to the transformation of forest and prairie landscapes. Southern fire-dependent plant communities, like longleaf pine woodlands, oak savannas, and piedmont prairies, almost disappeared following the decline of fire, thereby causing declines in the number of animals that depended on these vegetation types. Although prescribed fire is recognized as a necessary tool for forest and wildlife habitat management, fire is used on only a small fraction of private forestlands. Because many of our native wildlife species are best adapted to conditions that result from frequent fires, burning only once in the life of a forest stand or burning less frequently than every five years (in the southeastern U.S. coastal plain) does not maintain quality wildlife habitat. Today, prescribed burning on private lands is hampered by:

• Limited knowledge or experience.

• Insufficient equipment or untrained personnel.

• Liability and smoke management concerns.

• Multiple ownership or small tract sizes.

• Financial constraints.

• Limited awareness of prescribed fire's multiple benefits.

• Urbanization and expanding wildland-urban interface pressures.

Many Prescribed Burn Associations (PBAs) have formed to help private landowners work together to safely conduct burns on their properties. This assistance allows landowners to learn from one another, share equipment, and work cooperatively to burn larger tracts of land on neighboring properties.

Public attitudes about fire have been greatly influenced by decades of Smokey Bear's effective fire-prevention messages that emphasize the destructiveness of wildfire. Although the anti-wildfire message did not extend to prescribed burning, many people are unable to distinguish between "good" and "bad" fire. Television and newspaper coverage has worsened the problem by dwelling on the sensational aspects of wildfire and doing little to educate the public on the benefits of prescribed burning. Recent efforts have attempted to promote the “good fire” concept to the public by using the #goodfire hashtag in social media. Educational characters, such as The Longleaf Alliance's Burner Bob®, are used to promote the benefits of prescribed fire (Figure 8).

Herbicides are increasingly used as a substitute for prescribed burning because of concern for property damage from fire. Although they help control competing vegetation and undesirable plant species, herbicides alone cannot provide many of the wildlife benefits that result from prescribed burning.

• Herbicides do not remove leaf litter, so they inhibit the germination of desirable grasses and forbs.

• Herbicides do not release nutrients into the soil, as do most fires.

• Broad-spectrum herbicides, such as glyphosate, eliminate desirable and undesirable plants.

• Broad-spectrum herbicides may limit plant diversity for at least a few years.

Used in combination with prescribed fire, however, herbicides can yield desirable vegetative conditions such as open, park-like woodland stands dominated by a lush herbaceous ground layer more quickly and easily than fire alone.

Figure 8. The bobwhite quail character Burner Bob® is used in public education campaigns to promote the benefits of prescribed burning.

Heidi Ferguson, Georgia Department of Natural Resources

×

Figure 8. The bobwhite quail character Burner Bob® is used in public education campaigns to promote the benefits of prescribed burning.

Heidi Ferguson, Georgia Department of Natural Resources

Print Image

Burning of loblolly pine stands generally is not begun until the dominant trees are 15 to 20 feet tall. However, longleaf pine stands can be burned any time after establishment, except when the young trees (saplings) are about 1 to 6 feet tall, when they are most vulnerable to fire (Figure 9 and Figure 10). Beneficial wildlife plants like partridge pea, beggarlice, and warm-season native grasses cannot grow unless sufficient sunlight reaches the forest floor; therefore, prescribed burning provides the greatest benefit to wildlife when conducted in open stands of timber or grasslands. For example, conducting a prescribed burn after a thinning operation increases the chance that the fire will stimulate ground cover development. For more information, see Thinning Pine Stands. Burning in a forest crowded with overstory and midstory trees generally does not improve wildlife habitat because sunlight cannot reach the forest floor where beneficial plants grow (Figure 11).

In North Carolina, prescribed burning is most commonly conducted between January and March, when most trees are less active metabolically (that is, they are in dormancy). In many cases, dormant-season burns are necessary to safely reduce leaves and other flammable materials that accumulate during periods of fire exclusion. Dormant-season burns are less likely to damage canopy trees and adjacent property than burns conducted during the spring and summer (the growing season). However, dormant-season burns do not completely kill young hardwoods, and they promote resprouting from the base of each plant's stem. Repeated burns conducted during the growing season eventually kill hardwood stems, allowing diverse grasses and wildflowers to develop. These herbaceous plants provide critical food and cover for some wildlife. One or more dormant-season burns may be required to reduce fuel loads before conducting a growing-season burn.

The burn regime, including the frequency of burning, should be tailored to the species of wildlife you favor (Table 2). Forests burned every one to three years, especially when burning occurs primarily during the growing season, tend to have a more open canopy with more grasses and forbs growing on the forest floor (Figure 12). Less frequently burned forests, especially those burned only in the dormant season, generally develop a dense, woody understory several years following a fire (Figure 13). Within about five to eight years after a prescribed burn, hardwood sprouts or saplings may become too tall to practically control with fire, and the stems begin to cast heavy shade on the ground; in such cases, special measures (for example, roller chopping or herbicide application) may be used along with fire to improve the quality of the forest for various wildlife.

*Avoid conducting ring fires. ↲

**Leave unburned spots for nest sites and shelter from predators. ↲

***Leave unburned areas (mosaics) to provide refuge. ↲

Figure 9. Longleaf pine seedlings in the "grass" stage are adapted to survive a fire.

C. Moorman

×

Figure 9. Longleaf pine seedlings in the "grass" stage are adapted to survive a fire.

C. Moorman

Print Image

Figure 10. Fast-growing longleaf pine saplings less than 8 feet tall are sometimes killed by intense fire.

C. Moorman

×

Figure 10. Fast-growing longleaf pine saplings less than 8 feet tall are sometimes killed by intense fire.

C. Moorman

Print Image

Figure 11. Prescribed burning in an unthinned pine stand will do little to improve wildlife habitat because of the shading cast by the dense overstory and midstory canopy.

R. Braham

×

Figure 11. Prescribed burning in an unthinned pine stand will do little to improve wildlife habitat because of the shading cast by the dense overstory and midstory canopy.

R. Braham

Print Image

Figure 12. Pine forests burned every one to three years during the growing season generally have a wide variety of wildflowers.

T. Sharpe

×

Figure 12. Pine forests burned every one to three years during the growing season generally have a wide variety of wildflowers.

T. Sharpe

Print Image

Figure 13. Forests burned every three to five years in the winter have a dense, woody understory beneficial to shrub-nesting songbirds and provide bedding cover for white-tailed deer.

R. Braham

×

Figure 13. Forests burned every three to five years in the winter have a dense, woody understory beneficial to shrub-nesting songbirds and provide bedding cover for white-tailed deer.

R. Braham

Print Image

Before initiating a prescribed burn, you must develop a burn plan. For the best results, your prescribed burn plan should be part of your overall forest and wildlife management plan. For detailed information, see Enrolling in North Carolina's Forest Stewardship Program. A Certified Burn Manager, consulting forester, state wildlife agency biologist, or state forestry agency forester can answer questions about prescribed burning or help you develop management and burn plans. Most state forestry websites provide information on what to include in a burn plan; however, at a minimum, burn plans should include:

• A map and a description of the area to be burned.

• The objectives and desired outcomes of the burn.

• A description of potential hazards in or near the burn area.

• Desired range of acceptable weather conditions and parameters at the time of the burn sufficient to minimize the likelihood of smoke damage and fire escaping onto adjacent areas.

• Equipment and labor necessary to complete the burn.

In North Carolina, you must first obtain a burn permit from the North Carolina Forest Service (NCFS). Then notify the NCFS, the local fire department, and neighbors that you will be conducting a prescribed burn on your property. Before burning, you must create firebreaks around the proposed burn area. Firebreaks can be created by pulling a plow, disk, or rake behind a tractor or all-terrain vehicle (ATV). Firebreaks for small areas can be created by hand-raking or clearing debris with leaf blowers. Roads and streams also can serve as firebreaks.

Many types of fires could be prescribed for a property, including a head fire, a backing fire, or a flanking fire. A backing fire is the least intense type of prescribed fire (Figure 14). In a backing fire, the fire typically is ignited with a drip torch and set along the downwind side of the area to be burned. The fire then slowly creeps into the wind, burning leaves and other small materials on the forest floor. A head fire has the wind at its back, and a flanking fire is ignited in a line perpendicular to the direction of the wind. The intensity of a fire can be increased in a controlled manner by igniting parallel strips of fire, often about 5 to 10 yards apart (Figure 15). In this strip head fire, the downwind line of fire will briefly intensify as the new upwind ignition strip quickly moves toward it before the two meet. Remember to never completely ring an area with fire because the fire could become too intense and leave no escape pathways for wildlife (Figure 16).

You should patrol a recently burned stand for smoldering stumps, downed logs, or places where the fire might have crossed the firebreak until no danger of fire escape or smoke damage remains. Diligence is needed to prevent fire escape. A postburn evaluation of the area should help assess whether the fire achieved the goals of your burn plan.

Figure 14. Backing fires are lit on the downwind edge of the stand and burn very slowly.

×

Figure 14. Backing fires are lit on the downwind edge of the stand and burn very slowly.

Print Image

Figure 15. Strip head fires are set at varying distances apart depending on burning conditions and the desired flame intensity.

×

Figure 15. Strip head fires are set at varying distances apart depending on burning conditions and the desired flame intensity.

Print Image

Figure 16. Intense ring fires with fast-moving flames leave no escape pathway for wildlife.

×

Figure 16. Intense ring fires with fast-moving flames leave no escape pathway for wildlife.

Print Image

Fire and Habitat

If the primary objective of a prescribed burn is to improve wildlife habitat quantity and quality, special considerations might be necessary to improve conditions in and around the burned area for wildlife. If a forest has not been burned in more than five years, large burns might be needed to quickly restore habitat over a large area. Long absences of fire may necessitate a dormant-season burn to reduce flammable material before growing-season burns can begin. Ideally, once quality ground cover is present, unburned "islands" of 1 to 2 acres should be included throughout larger burned areas, leaving nesting sites, alternative food sources, and protective cover for wildlife. These unburned islands preferably would contain patches of blackberry, native fruit-producing shrubs, or scattered nut-producing hardwoods like oaks and hickories. Interestingly, burning the same block every year often produces a diverse ground cover with naturally occurring unburned islands because light, patchy fuels lead to spotty burns. In these cases, protection of unburned islands may be less necessary.

Once areas have been burned sufficiently to restore habitat, prescribed fires can be conducted in smaller blocks of 10 to 20 acres. In this case, spread burning activities across your forestland in any year, leaving newly burned stands adjacent to stands that have not been burned in several years (Figure 17). This staggered approach provides food and cover for a range of wildlife species and generally increases the number and diversity of animals that a forest can support.

Stumps and Deadwood

Deadwood on the ground, also known as coarse woody debris, in addition to rooted and partially rooted stumps, provides an important source of food and shelter for mice, shrews, lizards, small snakes, salamanders, and many invertebrates. Small-diameter woody debris often is consumed during a prescribed fire, but stumps and large fallen logs, which are most important as wildlife habitat, generally remain intact following a burn.

Standing dead trees, called snags, provide critical nesting, feeding, and resting cover for more than 100 wildlife species in North Carolina, including about 40 birds (Figure 18). The manner in which fire affects snags is complex. During a prescribed burn, fire often burns into the heartwood, causing snags to fall. Although these newly downed logs are beneficial to other wildlife, they no longer are usable by cavity-nesting birds and bats. High-intensity prescribed fires may kill live trees, thereby increasing the number of snags in a forest. In addition, less intense prescribed fires may scar the bases of trees, especially hardwoods, creating an entry point for insects and disease and leading to eventual death of the tree. To protect snags, stumps, and large fallen logs from fire damage, rake leaves and other organic debris away from them before a burn. Snags near the edge of the burn area can fall across firebreaks during or after a burn, so consider removing these before beginning a prescribed burn.

Figure 17. To promote diversity, leave newly burned stands adjacent to stands that haven't been burned recently, and retain small, unburned islands throughout larger burned areas.

×

Figure 17. To promote diversity, leave newly burned stands adjacent to stands that haven't been burned recently, and retain small, unburned islands throughout larger burned areas.

Print Image

Figure 18. Standing dead trees, called snags, provide habitat for birds like this red-bellied woodpecker and many other wildlife species.

Cavan Images, iStock

×

Figure 18. Standing dead trees, called snags, provide habitat for birds like this red-bellied woodpecker and many other wildlife species.

Cavan Images, iStock

Print Image

Most commonly, prescribed burning is conducted in pine-dominated forests. Many types of pines, including longleaf pine, table mountain pine, and pond pine, are adapted to fire and can survive relatively intense flames. However, conducting a prescribed burn in hardwood forests is not out of the question. As with pine stands, fire has a long history in North Carolina's hardwood forests. South-facing slopes and other dry sites in the Southern Appalachians likely burned at least every 10 years and often were characterized by open stands of oak with well-developed herbaceous ground cover. The fact that bison and elk (which needed the fire-maintained herbaceous layer for grazing) were native to western North Carolina is further evidence of historic frequent fire. Many of the same benefits achieved by burning pine forests may be gained by burning hardwood stands every 3 to 10 years (Figure 19). These benefits include:

• Midstory reduction and increased vegetation in the ground and shrub layers.

• Removal of leaf litter, which allows valuable native grasses and forbs to grow.

• Improved quality and quantity of deer browse.

• Increased fleshy fruit and acorn production.

• Possible increase in the number and vigor of oak seedlings in the forest understory.

However, mature hardwood trees, especially species with thin bark, such as tulip poplar, water oak, willow oak, red maple, and American beech, may be damaged or killed if a fire becomes too hot. Other oak species and most hickories are more fire-resistant. You should weigh the risk of losing valuable trees against the habitat improvements associated with fire in hardwood stands.

Figure 19. An oak woodland, like this one in Tennessee, can be created using low-intensity annual prescribed burns.

R. Evans, University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station

×

Figure 19. An oak woodland, like this one in Tennessee, can be created using low-intensity annual prescribed burns.

R. Evans, University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station

Print Image

Fire, along with saturated soils or prolonged flooding, aids in the control of vegetation in many coastal plain wetlands. Historically, fire that started in the surrounding uplands crept down into wetlands, especially during dry periods (Figure 20). These periodic fires once maintained vast areas of switchcane, called canebrakes, in wetland areas throughout the South. These canebrakes provided habitat for a diversity of wildlife, and remnant patches of switchcane still are used by many animal species (Figure 21). More recently, however, firebreaks typically are plowed around the edges of southern wetlands, thereby destroying the unique plant community along this boundary and preventing fire from entering the wetland. Without fire, trees and shrubs in bays and other isolated wetlands become dense and the canopy eventually closes. In this case, wetland herbaceous cover, which is favored by many species of amphibians and reptiles, is shaded out, and permanent drying of the wetlands may occur. It is thought that herb bogs historically burned every 2 to 8 years, whereas shrub bogs or pocosins likely were maintained by more intense and less frequent fires every 8 to 20 years. Animals like the pine barrens treefrog and the bog turtle (Figure 22) depend on herb bogs maintained by fire and may become increasingly rare as the use of fire declines.

The intense fires that burn pocosins often consume the organic soil to varying depths, resulting in a variety of microhabitats developing after the fire. This environmental diversity yields protective shrub cover important to black bears while maintaining some open areas for other wildlife species. Caution should be used when burning pocosin vegetation because it can be the most explosive of all southern fuels. Always consult a professional before burning these areas.

Figure 20. This periodically burned cypress savanna in eastern North Carolina likely resembles the burned wetlands of the past.

C. Moorman

×

Figure 20. This periodically burned cypress savanna in eastern North Carolina likely resembles the burned wetlands of the past.

C. Moorman

Print Image

Figure 21. Swainson's warblers often nest in switchcane, especially in the remnant canebrakes that once were maintained by periodic fires.

C. Moorman

×

Figure 21. Swainson's warblers often nest in switchcane, especially in the remnant canebrakes that once were maintained by periodic fires.

C. Moorman

Print Image

Figure 22. Bog turtles favor herb bogs maintained by periodic burning.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission file photo

×

Figure 22. Bog turtles favor herb bogs maintained by periodic burning.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission file photo

Print Image

Early explorers reported many prairie-like openings in the piedmont of North Carolina. No such openings exist today, but experimental restoration is being tried on a few small sites. Grassland or old fields, however, can be maintained and enhanced by periodic burning. Benefits include:

• Reduced growth of competing woody vegetation.

• Increased palatability of herbaceous plants.

• Increased plant and insect diversity, including an increase in wildflowers.

• Increased habitat for grassland songbirds, small mammals, and butterflies, including some of our rarest species.

Although relatively inexpensive and more economical than other forms of management, burning does cost money and can be a daunting task for an inexperienced landowner. A number of precautions must be taken before initiating a prescribed fire, and much planning and preparation are required to implement a burn. Burners must consider adjacent land uses; the location of nearby highways, schools, hospitals, and other potentially smoke-sensitive areas; and the weather forecast. Inexperienced landowners always should seek professional assistance before conducting a burn. Financial assistance for prescribed burns, including the creation of firebreaks, may be available through programs offered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) or the NCFS. NCFS can construct firebreaks or conduct burns for a fee. In addition, each NCFS district office maintains a list of local contractors who conduct prescribed burns, and a county-level contractor list is also available on the NCFS website (Figure 23). In addition, many PBAs provide extra hands and equipment to assist members with prescribed burns within their service areas for little to no charge.

Figure 23. Inexperienced burners should contact a forester, a contractor, or local Prescribed Burn Association for assistance with any prescribed burn.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission file photo

×

Figure 23. Inexperienced burners should contact a forester, a contractor, or local Prescribed Burn Association for assistance with any prescribed burn.

N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission file photo

Print Image

Each state has different requirements for becoming a certified burn manager and for the type of liability protection that is provided once certified, so be sure to check with your state forestry agency for specific details. In North Carolina, the North Carolina Prescribed Burn Act, passed in 1999, limits civil liability for damages resulting from fire escape or smoke from a prescribed burn, provided the burn is conducted in compliance with statutory requirements. In 2023, the act was amended to apply a gross negligence standard. To qualify for liability protection, burners must complete a Certified Burner Training program administered by the NCFS; prepare a prescribed burn plan; obtain all necessary burn permits and authorizations; notify nearby residents, businesses, and emergency response agencies of the pending burn; and conduct a prescribed burn under North Carolina smoke management guidelines that adheres to the burn plan while being observed on-site by a certified burner who can verify the burn. Landowners burning 50 acres or fewer of their own land qualify for the reduced liability without attending a training session, provided they follow the same high standards of burning and have a burn plan completed by a certified burner. Contact the NCFS for information on becoming a certified burner.

For more information, the following publications are available from your local N.C. Cooperative Extension center and online from the NC State Extension publications catalog.

• Enrolling in North Carolina's Forest Stewardship Program

• Wildlife and Forest Stewardship

• Management by Objectives: Successful Forest Planning

• Developing Wildlife-Friendly Pine Plantations

• Fire-Resistant Landscaping in North Carolina

Guidebook for Prescribed Burning in the Southern Region

UGA Cooperative Extension Bulletin 1560 | WSFNR-23-16A

Guidelines for Managing Smoke from Forestry Burning Operations

The North Carolina Smoke Management Program

Introduction to Prescribed Fire in Southern Ecosystems

USDA Forest Service Technical Publication

N.C. Forest Service — How to Become a North Carolina Certified Burner

North Carolina Prescribed Fire Council