Fire Management: Stop Chasing Fixed Seasons  
- BGWT 209


This episode is made possible by support from the Oklahoma Conservation Commission
Oklahoma Prescribed Burn Association

Great Plains Fire Science Exchange


Prescribed fire has long been managed around familiar seasons, weather prescriptions and rules of thumb. But are those rules always helping land managers reach their goals? In this episode, University of Nebraska professor and rangeland ecologist Dirac Twidwell, Ph.D. joins John Weir, Laura Goodman Ph.D. and Mark Turner Ph.D. to challenge some long-held assumptions about prescribed burning. Twidwell traces his work from Oklahoma State University and Texas fire experiments to present-day Great Plains research, explaining how studies of fire intensity, ember transport and burn-unit design expanded what researchers thought prescribed fire could safely accomplish.


The group discusses why land managers may benefit from thinking beyond a short spring burn season. Growing-season and fall burns can create additional opportunities, reduce conflicts with busy ranch schedules and, under the right conditions, help accomplish objectives such as eastern redcedar control. But the conversation is not an argument for simply burning under extreme conditions. Instead, Twidwell emphasizes understanding the mechanisms that create risk—including wind-driven ember transport, dry fuels, drought and woody fuel buildup—and designing burn units and management strategies accordingly.


That same emphasis on planning carries into eastern redcedar management. Rather than waiting for woody cover to reach the point where expensive mechanical treatment becomes necessary, Twidwell describes a seed-source strategy that protects intact grasslands first. Research in Nebraska found most new redcedar recruitment occurring within roughly two football fields of a seed source, giving landowners a manageable area in which to focus prevention. The larger lesson is applicable far beyond cedar: identify risk early, protect what is still working, follow initial treatments with continued management and build a long-term plan rather than treating symptoms one project at a time.