Puttin’ Out The Fire

Sometimes It’s Healthier Not To

Horatio, South Carolina

“As night deepened all he could see was the shifting line of fire, like some malfunction in the wiring of the world.” —William Gay, Provinces Of Night. “In the draws the smoke coming off the ground like mist and the thin black trees burning on the slopes like heathen candles.” —Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Heathen candles and malfunctioning wiring ... You’ll not find many Southern writers praising fire except those who understand fire as an ecological tool. Janisse Ray does. Her passionate work on the longleaf pine ecosystem documents how fire clears underbrush, sets seeds free, and opens up healthy habitat.

Several years back Chuck Leavell of Allman Brothers Band and Rolling Stones fame drove me into tall pines free of underbrush at his Georgia woodland preserve.

“This landscape sure looks familiar,” I thought. Then I recalled an afternoon at Little Hobcaw Barony in Nesmith, South Carolina, where financier and presidential advisor Bernard Baruch established a quail hunting property in the early 1900s. Decades of controlled burns have given the land a park-like appearance. Chuck’s Charlane Woodland and Preserve looks much the same. His forestry expertise earned him national recognition for forestry management, and his PBS TV series, America’s Forests with Chuck Leavell, reveals how vital forest habitats are to the well-being and economic health of communities.

In his PBS series Chuck visited Paradise, California, where a campfire devastated the community. “I talked to a fellow who barely got out with his wife and two children and did an interview where his home burned. His mission was to bring people back to Paradise to rebuild.”

Don’t Fear The Reaper & Don’t Fear The Fire—When the colonists stepped ashore in North America, they brought their fear of fire with them. Not all fires are bad. Case in point: prescribed burns, known also as controlled burns.

“When we filmed the California episode, some positive things we were seeing were contractors clearing the underbrush for fifty to 100 yards from either side of certain highways. That way, if somebody throws a cigarette out, you’re less likely to have a wildfire, and if it does create a fire on that little edge, it gives Cal Fire a lot more time to keep it from spreading up the mountain. We interviewed a woman working with a community surrounded by forestland. There was a town hall-type meeting where people talked about why there is a need for controlled burns and how they shouldn’t be afraid we’re going to set the woods on fire. We’re doing it for a purpose—to reduce the incident of wildfires—and we do it very carefully.”

Educating people to view fire as an ecological process that has long shaped natural communities is vital. Many plant species depend on or benefit from fire, as do gopher tortoises, bobwhite quail, and other species. Prescribed burns ensure ecosystem health and lower the risk of wildfires by curbing the build-up of forest floor litter that feeds catastrophic wildfires. They also keep the air cleaner. Wildfires produce higher pollutant levels and can last for months. Prescribed fires require a day or two.

“What’s interesting,” said Chuck, “is communities are now saying we need to do this. You see it on the news every day. That process is beginning to be assimilated in the minds of people so they have a better understanding of the importance of controlled fires, how you can do it everywhere.”

Fire is not always your foe. It can be your friend. Even in wildfire-ravaged California. As Janisse Ray wrote, “Longleaf and lightning began to depend on each other and other plants—the ground cover grasses and forbs, or flowering herbs—evolved to survive and welcome fire as well … Longleaf became known as the pine that fire built.”—Ecology of a Cracker Childhood