IN FOCUS: TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT DEP - Prescribed Fire Awareness Week

Florida Department of Environmental Protection sent this bulletin at 01/27/2017 02:39 PM EST
florida department of environmental protection in focus
Prescribed Fire Banner

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is celebrating Prescribed Fire Awareness Week this week to recognize the important role fire plays in protecting Florida’s natural communities. Many of Florida’s ecosystems require fire at regular intervals to maintain diversity. Prescribed fire is also a safe way to ensure ecosystem health while reducing wildfire risk.

Prescribed burning, which is guided by detailed plans and must be conducted by specially trained staff, is an important land-management activity that will benefit many of the nearly 800,000 acres entrusted to the Florida State Park system. In fiscal years 2015-16 and 2016-17, the state of Florida has invested more than $26 million for resource management in state parks, allowing the Florida Park Service to set lofty goals for prescribed fire. This fiscal year, the Florida Park Service plans to apply prescribed fire to 105,000 acres across Florida – more than any previous year. 

Largest Prescribed Burn in Florida State Park History

In November, the Florida Park Service, in collaboration with the Florida Forest Service, conducted a prescribed fire that successfully burned 6,000 acres at Fakahatchee Strand State Park – the largest prescribed fire in Florida State Park history! The Florida Park Service had 22 crew members on-site using a variety of fire engines, vehicles and equipment to ensure the fire was safely controlled both by land and air.

DEP Leadership Pass Pack Test

DEP Leadership Takes Pack Test

From left to right: State Lands Director David Clark; Florida State Parks Assistant Director Matt Mitchell; Florida State Parks Assistant Director Chuck Hatcher; DEP Secretary Jon Steverson; DEP Deputy Secretary for Land and Recreation Gary Clark. 

Hiking 2 miles with a 25-pound pack strapped to your back is no easy task, especially when you have to complete it in less than 30 minutes – this is the pack test. Anyone who wants to be able to apply prescribed fire or work on a burn team has to complete this grueling endurance challenge.

Emphasizing the importance of prescribed fire as a land management tool, earlier this month, DEP Secretary Steverson and DEP Deputy Secretary Gary Clark joined State Lands Director David Clark and Florida State Parks Assistant Directors Matt Mitchell and Chuck Hatcher to take on the challenge as part of their certification to apply prescribed fire. They set out on their journey at 8 a.m. and crossed the finish line in less than half an hour, passing the test. 

In addition to the endurance challenge, DEP leadership took a course and were tested on their fire safety knowledge and protocols. 

Taking the pack test and written tests are an important part of prescribed fire safety. By taking these tests, DEP leadership shows their support for those in the field who take the tests each year.

Florida State Park
Prescribed Fire Teams

FireFire Management

Specialized teams assist state parks with safely administering prescribed fires.

With 174 state parks and trails, and a yearly goal to burn 105,000 acres by July 1, the Florida Park Service uses mobile teams to apply fire across the state. Each district has teams of 5-10 experienced state park staff that work throughout their region assisting individual state parks with prescribed fires. When dispatched to a park, a team brings specialized equipment and tools, including a fire engine, to help control the fire and manage fire breaks. Once the prescribed fire is finished, the team moves on to the next park.

Benefits of Prescribed Fires

Prescribed Fire

In Florida’s state parks and preserves, fire-dependent habitats are home to hundreds of species of plants and animals including many threatened and endangered species that cannot survive without proper, frequent and ongoing fire management. Species such as the Florida scrub-jay, the Florida grasshopper sparrow and the gopher tortoise are completely dependent of frequent fire. A springtime controlled fire in the
St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve even allowed five rare plants that had never been documented in the area to bloom in summer.

Prescribed burns also reduce fuel – underbrush and deadfall – that builds up on forest floors. If fuels are not reduced periodically, wildfires can intensify and become destructive. Prescribed burns are conducted so that when lightning does strike, fires are more easily managed to protect lives and property.

Additional benefits of prescribed fire include:

  • Stimulating new plant growth and flowering, which is also additional food and shelter for wildlife;
  • Preparing the forest floor by removing dead vegetation so that new growth can establish;
  • Helping to control damaging insects and diseases that affect trees and native vegetation;
  • Creating scenic vistas full of wildlife and wild flowers; and
  • Recycling nutrients through the ecosystem.