Prescribed fire milestone on Alabama’s Bankhead National Forest

ALABAMA - The William B. Bankhead National Forest in northcentral Alabama is a living laboratory where researchers carry out collaborative, long-term studies on prescribed fire, silviculture, wildlife, climate, and herbaceous plant life.

The first long-term study was installed on the Bankhead National Forest in 2001 by USDA Forest Service scientist Callie Schweitzer. This study explored the effects of forest thinning and different prescribed fire regimes.

In spring 2024, Schweitzer and the team reached a milestone of 100 prescribed burns in the study.

Over time, this body of research, which Schweitzer and Daniel Dey of the Northern Research Station synthesized in a recent article, has identified methods for bringing unmanaged hardwood-pine forests back towards upland hardwood woodlands.

Increasing the oak component in forests is a common management goal, because of the benefits oaks provide to wildlife as well as their timber value. However, oaks face challenges due in part to decades of disturbance changes such as fire suppression. Schweitzer compared the response of oaks and other species to different burning and thinning regimes.  Results have not been conclusive on how to shift the composition to favor oak, as red maple resprouts vigorously after fire, but one suggestion is to treat red maple sprouts with herbicide after fire.

Schweitzer created the initial partnership between the Bankhead National Forest and the Southern Research Station in 2001 and in 2002 added Alabama A&M as a collaborator. Yong Wang, researcher and professor at Alabama A&M, helped bring in a $4 million National Science Foundation grant which supported the research of 26 graduate students. Since then, Schweitzer has continued building a program that leverages 14 partnerships.  The team is dedicated to sharing the information with land managers and has written more than 72 scientific articles about the research.

Schweitzer and colleagues have also delivered more than 45 field tours and trainings to managers.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program installed an atmospheric observatory. “If you build it, they will come,” explains Schweitzer, in response to the installation. The Bankhead NF is the newest of three sites in the U.S. where the program collects data. The data will inform climate research nationally and internationally and is designed to improve clouds and aerosols in earth system models.   

The new atmospheric observatory will help researchers link fire and air – how burn conditions affect atmospheric emissions. The atmospheric data will also improve smoke modeling.

Over the years, researchers have built on the initial long-term study. Current studies investigate the flammability of different tree species’ leaves, below ground carbon and fungal dynamics, and estimates of forest floor fuel load with terrestrial LiDAR.

Recent publications from research on the Bankhead National Forest include:

• Schweitzer authored a guide for landowners and land managers on Prescribed Fire for Upland Oaks based on the more than 100 prescribed burns that her team have conducted over 20 years.
• John Craycroft studied the use of unmanned aerial systems (drones) to ignite prescribed fires, which allows for less risk for personnel, lower costs, and more flexibility during his time as an ORISE fellow with the Southern Research Station.
• Craycroft also studied the overstory mortality in various thinning and burning regimes. He found that dormant season burns did not affect larger trees but does favor white oak seedlings compared to red maple seedlings.
• Carson Barefoot studied the effects of thinning and prescribed fire on ground flora, showing that flora diversity was greatest in areas that were thinned and burned every three years where the mineral soil was exposed, as part of his doctorate research at the University of Alabama.