Fire on the Forty Workshops
Charles Ray Nix WMA - 2014
More than 25 landowners and natural resource professionals gathered at the Charles Ray Nix Wildlife Management Area near Sardis, Mississippi to participate in an Introduction to Prescribed Fire Workshop. This prescribed burning workshop was paired with a workshop about managing habitat for bobwhites and turkeys the previous day. The workshop started with presentations about fire ecology, fire weather, fuels, and fire implementation in the Charles Ray Nix Educational Building. The program then moved outdoors for demonstrations of fire suppression and ignition techniques, as well as a prescribed burning demonstration. Landowners were allowed to participate in the burn demonstration after signing a waiver. Several landowners elected to participate and were able to get experience using prescribed burning equipment including drip torches, flappers, rakes, and water tanks under the guidance of Certified Prescribed Burn Managers from the Mississippi Forestry Commission, Mississippi State University, and MDWFP.
The workshop began with classroom presentations. Here, Dr. Varner discusses fire weather.
The weather was cooperative and we were able to burn.
Landowners were able to participate in prescribed burning under the direction of fire professionals from multiple agencies.
Landowner evaluations of the workshop were favorable and most plan to use prescribed fire to manage wildlife habitat on their farms in the future.
