Types of Prescribed Fire

The Carson National Forest mainly uses three prescribed fire techniques: pile, understory and jackpot burning. Each are used for different reasons and in different conditions.

Pile Burning

Piles burning is a type of prescribed fire in which slash, like thin branches, are piled by thinning crews and treated with fire. Thinning is applied for different reasons in different areas:

• In some vegetation communities, like ponderosa pine and dry mixed conifer, lightning-caused wildfires were historically frequent and low-intensity. Thinning is used in these areas to reduce unnaturally dense fuels and prepare an area for understory burning or managing lightning–caused wildfires. 

• In other vegetation communities, like piñon woodlands and spruce-fir, lightning-caused wildfire were historically infrequent and high-intensity. Thinning is strategically placed near the wildland urban interface to moderate fire behavior and create defensible space for homes, communities and critical infrastructure, among other values that could be threatened. 

This work is often complemented by members of the public who obtain permits to gather fuelwood in recently thinned areas.

It is ideal to pile burn after winter weather conditions have set in. The dampened or snow-covered forest floor reduces the chances a fire creeps away from piles.

Understory Burning

To mimic fire’s natural role in vegetation communities where it is frequent and low-intensity, crews apply fire broadly throughout an area under the forest canopy. Grasses, leaf litter, fallen and dried pine needles, downed branches, brush and occasional single or clusters of trees are burned.

• Higher-Intensity Results: In areas where fire has been absent for a long period of time, crews may prescribe moderate-intensity fire to return an area to desired conditions. This may result in fire effects that create openings in the canopy, mitigate meadow encroachment or promote aspen growth where wet mixed conifer stands exist.

• Wildlife Trees: Dead standing and downed trees are wildlife habitat. We call dead standing ponderosa trees over a certain size “wildlife trees.” Wood permit holders should look at their current permit for prohibitions.

The optimal conditions for understory burning is a balance, when the ground and fuels are not too wet and not too dry. Fire managers must find those conditions while matching it with weather and other prescription parameters, such as forecasted smoke dispersal.

Jackpot Burning

Fire crews implement jackpot burns by targeting concentrations (or "jackpots”) of fuels, like clusters of downed branches, throughout an area. They can be naturally-occurring or the result of thinning-related activities (but not piled).

Jackpot burning is a modified form of understory burning where high concentrations of fuel are targeted rather than a broad area of a forest floor.

The ideal conditions for jackpot burning are similar to understory burning.

 

Planned Prescribed Fire Section Links

• Planned Prescribed Fires | When and Where | New Approaches | Get Notified | Types of Prescribed Fires | Smoke from Prescribed Fires | Fire Ecology