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NBC PROFILE - SUMMER 2005
Specialized Training to Prepare Conservationists to Maximize Prescribed Burn Efforts |
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*Re-printed by permission of the author, Christine Griffiths, The Nature Conservancy
Thomasville, GA - Conservation professionals from throughout the East learned how to conduct prescribed burns from helicopters with specialized ignition equipment at a training held July 11-13, 2005, at Greenwood Plantation in Thomasville, GA. Aviation Management, an office of the U.S. Department of the Interior, and The Nature Conservancy's Global Fire Initiative, in cooperation with numerous state and federal partners, organized the training.
Twenty-six students from federal, state and non-profit agencies underwent five days of intense classroom and helicopter field training, learning the tactical and logistical use of helicopters and ignition equipment to maximize prescribed fire efforts.
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"Helicopters allow us to burn 1,000 acres an hour, whereas on foot, we can only burn 200 to 300 acres a day," said Kevin Hiers, the Georgia and Alabama fire program manager for The Nature Conservancy and one of the instructors for the training. "This makes a big difference when we only have a small window of opportunity to burn large areas in a safe and effective way."
Helicopters also enable prescribed fire crewmembers to burn areas that are difficult to access on foot due to rough terrain, thereby avoiding potentially dangerous situations for the fire crew.
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Georgia Forestry Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have each donated the use of a helicopter for the training. Students had an opportunity to put their newly learned skills to the test during in-flight exercises.
"The partnerships among the federal, state and non-profit agencies have been the key to making this training possible," explained Megan Gallagher, program specialist with Aviation Management. "With students coming from Massachusetts, Kentucky, Florida, Georgia and North Carolina among other places, we are bringing together a wealth knowledge and experience from a number of prescribed burn programs, which makes the training a richer experience for all involved."
Partners who have contributed to organizing the training include Aviation Management, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Georgia Forestry Commission, The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. National Park Service,
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In accordance with the standards set by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, the training will include instruction on aviation safety, aircraft capabilities and limitations, helicopter operation, transport of hazardous materials, and aviation life support equipment. One day of the training was dedicated to the mechanics of operating the plastic sphere dispenser, a machine that fits into the helicopter and drops small balls (similar in size and appearance of ping-pong balls) filled with a mixture of chemicals designed to ignite prescribed fires.
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About Prescribed Fire
Historically, Native Americans, farmers and Mother Nature herself - in the form of frequent lightening strikes - burned the land to keep it fertile and healthy. However, today the role of fire in many adapted fire-dependent ecosystems, such as the longleaf pine forest, is drastically out of balance, threatening the loss of valuable forest land and plant and animal life. Prescribed fire is an essential land management tool that not only promotes a healthy environment, but also helps to suppress the sudden outbreak of wildfires.
Through The Nature Conservancy's Global Fire Initiative and the prescribed burn efforts of The Nature Conservancy's state programs, strategies are being developed and implemented to safely return fire to the ground in ways that balance the needs of both the human and natural communities.
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The Nature Conservancy is a leading international, nonprofit organization that preserves plants, animals and natural communities representing the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. In Georgia, working with local communities and partners, more than 220,000 acres have been protected. Visit us on the Web at http://nature.org/georgia.
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