To Burn or Not To Burn

Post by Clemson student Sarah Anne Horne

When it comes to fighting and managing Montana fires, these are the people to call. Stormey Tucker, Noah Wilson, and Carmen Borchelt are DNRC officers that work in different sectors, but all in the realm of fire fighting and management. After driving with them across the ranch in their pickup trucks, I hopped out and learned more about all that goes into fire management in this area.

Fire is a tool that has been used for hundreds of years and is a natural occurrence in the landscape. However, for the past hundred years, I learned that fire has actually been suppressed by ranchers and landowners because of the fear of escaped burns and the repercussions that would follow. Consequently, this leaves a hundred years of fuel on the ground which in turn increases the risk of wildfires. Additionally, without burns the land’s soil health decreases and woody plants take over the landscape which I saw evident as I looked around at the vegetation surrounding us. The Bobcat Fire in 2020 tore across tens of thousands of acres in Musselshell County and the remnants are still very evident with hundreds of black, barren Ponderosa Pines standing and fallen off in the distance.

As I listened to the officers talk more about the fires that had taken place throughout the past couple decades and the impact on communities and ranches, I wondered about how long it would take for this area to be fully restored back to what it originally was. The officers talked about managing these areas with slash piles, the use of them from logging and thinning operations, and their risk for starting fires as well. Noah told us stories of the tactfulness of holdover fires that he had seen through the years popping back up after rainstorms or even hiding in roots while it snows and then starting back in the spring. When I asked Noah how long it would take for this landscape to recover naturally without the salvage logging he simply just said, “A long time.” Afterward though he took an increment borer and showed me the age of one of the Ponderosa Pines next to our group. Twenty-eight years old and it was a pretty good sized pine, meaning it would most likely take decades for the landscape to look similar to the way it did before.

The officers drove our group around to see the massive slash piles that were over on another rancher’s property and we stopped to discuss the purpose of these fires for Montana drawing differences to back home in South Carolina. In Montana, Noah talked about their main focus being on livestock and grazing benefits such as taking away weeds and improving grass quality rather than timber. He said that Montana makes 35 times more livestock than from timber, versus in South Carolina where we are making more in the timber industry and therefore, are managing fire more for timber health and management.

Fire is seen to sustain grass quality, soil health, and biodiversity. It has in the past, does now, and will continue in the future as a natural player in these ecosystems. The question for ranchers now is will they take the risk to burn, improving their land but also risking the repercussions that could come as well. The DNRC officers talked to us about new educational safety programs that are in progress, hoping to help ranchers be able to learn how to make burn plans and safely perform prescribed fires. With more education and following regulations, the future is looking bright for prescribed burns in Montana.