"We're gonna let it burn, burn, burn, burn"- Ellie Goulding
Today myself (Ethan), Emma, Meghan, and Jack Boyle tagged along for Meghan's Landscape Architecture class to attend and assist with a prescribed burn at Quarry Gardens at Schuyler with the Piedmont Discovery Center.
On the way there, Ethan nearly took out his first 5-point buck, but the group got to Quarry Gardens safely (yay)! The morning was spent at Quarry Gardens with Piedmont Discovery Center's Devin, Joanna, and David. They walked the group through some history regarding fire management and fire history on landscapes, specifically in the Piedmont region. Indigenous peoples have been using fire for a myriad of purposes (natural resource management, cultural celebration, communication, etc), and much of modern fire suppression has a colonial history to it. We turned then to talking about conditions for burning (which include humidity measures, wind speed/ direction, slope, and ceiling height/ wind speed). The burn was good to go, and today we were burning patches of remnant savannah forests with post oak, white oak, and other indicator species.
Very cool experience, awesome to be a part of it, and great to be able to help out with drip torching!
- Ethan