Take a look at this stunning short film showing the management of a prescribed burn in Florida’s Everglades National Park.

With the use of airboats and helicopters, experts are able to manage a planned fire in an environmentally sensitive sawgrass prairie ecosystem. By reducing the amount of potential fuel through managed burning, devastating wildfire threats can be kept to a minimum. As you can see in this video, communication and rapid response to changes in the local weather conditions are key to the success of a prescribed burn. Read More...

Tags: Prescribed burning, Everglades National Park, Sawgrass

The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior. It manages approximately 245 million acres of public land, most of which is located in the 11 Western States and Alaska.
The Oregon/Washington division has produced this fantastic video, titled ‘The Art of Burning Across Landscapes’ which looks at fire’s impact on our environment.
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Tags: wildfire management, Prescribed burning, USDA Forest Service, BLM, Bureau of Land Management

It’s not only skiers and snowboarders who have been lamenting the lack of the white stuff in Colorado’s winter resorts in recent months. With the onset of spring well underway, melt water is extremely scarce and as a result wild fire professionals are fearing the worst as prospects of an early fire season loom large.

Already, one out of control blaze has claimed three lives and destroyed homes in the drought-stricken state. An abundance of highly combustible fuel created by prolonged dry spells, combined with strong gusty winds is providing perfect conditions for wildfires. Colorado firefighters are bracing themselves for a long and hectic season.

Ken Neubecker, director of the Western Rivers Institute said “It’s worse right now in the Roaring Fork Valley than it was in 2002 and that was a pretty years for fires.” March was one of the warmest and driest on record with some regions of the state having no measurable precipitation during the month. Read More...

Tags: wildfire, drought, climate change, Colorado, Western Rivers Institute

Here’s a great video from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Through time-lapse photography, it dramatically shows fire crews performing a prescribed burn to help restore grassland habitat.

As we know, weather plays an important role in the process of a prescribed burn thanks to its influence on fire and smoke behavior, as well how it affects fuel flammability. And we also know that weather can be extremely unpredictable—which is why the QD3 Quick Deploy portable weather station from FTS is the professional fire management agencies’ first choice when it comes to accuracy and reliability, ensuring the safety of the fire fighters, the public and property. Read More...

Tags: US Fish and Wildlife Service, Prescribed burning, QD3, Portable RAWS

Long in the video editing bay, we are pleased to present “A Prescription for Success: On Site Weather Conditions with Portable RAWS”, a 14-minute documentary-style video that explores prescribed burning—the value of it, how it’s done, and of course, the importance of having accurate weather conditions at the site before, during and after the burn.

The footage was filmed this past February, while collaborating with the US Forest Service in the Apalachicola National Forest in Northwestern Florida. For this particular burn they were planning to burn 10,000 acres in 3 days. Read More...

Tags: Portable RAWS, apalachicola national forest, QD3

We recently came across an article on the US Forest Service website that does an excellent job of explaining the value of prescribed burning for reducing fuel loads.

Frequent, low-severity fires were the norm in many dry forests across the western United States, prior to Euro-America settlement. These fires kept accumulated fuels such as fallen branches and dead trees to a minimum. They cleared out many younger, smaller trees while older trees in these fire-adapted ecosystems developed thick bark that protected them from the heat of periodic fires.

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Tags: Portable RAWS, QD3, fuel loads

For an upcoming video campaign to communicate the benefits of prescribed burning and using a portable RAWS, FTS collaborated with the Apalachicola National Forest to document prescribed burning in action. Read More...

Tags: QD3, apalachicola national forest