Prescribed Fire Longleaf Pine Prescribed Fire Forestry Activities Wildlife Management Current Projects

Prescribed Fire: A Key Land Management Tool

Prescribed fire is an important land management tool used on The Preserve at Callaway Gardens™. Most prescribed fire activities are implemented during the Winter and early Spring. Recently, approximately 1,200 acres in total have been identified across The Preserve that would benefit from being burned during the upcoming burn season.

Prescribed fire improves the health and biodiversity of many ecosystems. “Prescribed” fire like a “prescribed” medication is intended to treat the current condition of a specific ecosystem and improve it. Prescribed fires are not wildfires, but instead are fires that are carefully set in predetermined patterns on specific tracts of land for a certain ecological purpose.  Weather conditions including wind, temperature and humidity are carefully assessed and monitored prior to and during the burn.

Fire is a natural disturbance in the Southeast and helps naturally regulate certain plant communities.  However, for safety reasons, it is usually unreasonable to allow natural fires to occur.  Thus, carefully planned prescribed fires are used.  Some of the benefits of prescribed fire include reducing the fuel load across the site (thus reducing the chance of catastrophic wildfire occurring by accident); encouraging populations of fire adapted species (such as longleaf pine) to thrive; cycling nutrients more quickly; opening scenic vistas; preparing sites for seeding or planting; controlling tree diseases; and improving the habitat for wildlife.

Prescribed fire has been re-introduced as a management tool on The Preserve at Callaway Gardens in the last 10 years, and already our conservation staff is seeing significant ecological benefits in the areas of the property that have been burned.

For more information on prescribed fire, refer to The Georgia Forestry Commission’s website at www.gfc.state.ga.us