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Fire ecology is focus of
Extension Forestry training

Outside the Archdale Building in downtown Raleigh, small groups huddled around coffee cans, trying to start a fire with five matches and a variety of materials found in nature. They were not trying to keep warm on this unseasonably mild November day; they were learning about fire ecology.

The training was sponsored by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources Library, which hosts monthly environmental education workshops that are open to the public. This one was particularly successful, drawing 37 participants.

The workshop on fire ecology is a new project of N.C. Project Learning Tree, a N.C. Cooperative Extension Forestry program based in N.C. State University’s College of Natural Resources. PLT sponsors environmental education programs for school teachers. Facilitators for the November workshop included Renee Strnad, N.C. Project Learning Tree coordinator, and John Isenhour, educational ranger with Clemmons Educational State Forest.

Participants had the opportunity to experience the Burning Issues multi-media CD, then left the building for related fire activities. Each group had a can with some materials to burn, such as dry or green leaves and pine needles, twigs and larger sticks. They had only five matches with which to get their materials burning.

As anticipated, the groups with drier, smaller materials found they lighted quickly. Those with larger materials or green plant materials found it harder – or impossible – to get the items to burn.

Isenhour described the fire behavior triangle, three features that help determine the behavior of forest fires: topography, weather and fuel type or load. To demonstrate, Isenhour created match forests of 100, 125 and 150 matches. The matches were clustered, heads up, sticking out of a metal frame.

When lit, fire spread more quickly in the more densely stacked match forests, just as fires leap from tree crown to tree crown in a real forest fire. One of the match forests was lit at a 33-degree angle to demonstrate how fire moves uphill.

N.C. Project Learning Tree has reached more than 50 teachers and natural resource professionals with the fire ecology workshop, which has been offered for a little more than a year. The program is funded through a grant from the national Project Learning Tree program and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The workshop covers topics including eco-habitats that need fire to survive and tips on "fire-wise" strategies for protecting yourself and your property from fire.

PLT’s next fire ecology workshop will be held Feb. 6-7 at Clemmons Educational State Forest in Clayton. For more information, phone 919.553.5651.

--N. Hampton