Workshop goal is to teach proper controlled burning

Learning how to conduct controlled pasture burns safely will be the focus of an educational workshop next month in Fort Scott.

The Southwind District K-State Research and Extension office, the National Park Service and the Great Plains Fire Science Exchange will host a pasture burning workshop at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9 in the Grand Hall of Fort Scott National Historic Site, 1 Old Fort Blvd.

The workshop will be designed to provide information on how to properly and effectively conduct controlled pasture burns, including burning strategies and related information.

"A lot of people burn pasture in the springtime to kill weeds and improve pastures," Southwind Extension District Agent Chris Petty said. "It does a lot of things for pasture improvement, and it's a good thing to do. People light a fire, but they don't have a plan and it can be dangerous."

Petty said occasionally pasture burns can get out of control due to weather and other factors, burning structures and neighboring lands. The workshop should give people information on how to burn and prevent the fires from getting out of control and creating possibly hazardous situations.

"It will explain how to do it safely with a plan," Petty said. "We want them to accomplish their goals but minimize hazards with the weather."

Petty said presenters for the workshop will include himself, as well as representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, and personnel in charge of a prescribed burn conducted each year on the tallgrass prairie at the Fort Scott National Historic Site.

"He will be one of the presenters and will talk about what they do and how they go about doing it," Petty said.

The burn at the historic site is typically conducted under the supervision of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NPS wildland fire personnel, as well as assistance from the Fort Scott Fire Department. The objective of that fire is to eliminate a buildup of hazardous fuels that could threaten park structures, control invasive woody and exotic plant species and promote the growth of native prairie plants.

Bourbon County Emergency Manager William Wallis will also speak at the workshop about "what the county expects from people who burn," Petty said.

"The whole program is about safety, and the rules and regulations and proper equipment to have," Petty said. "We want people to burn pastures if they want to burn, but do it safely and effectively."

Bourbon County Fire District No. 3 Chief Delwin Mumbower said firefighters in the district responded to 101 "out of control" grass fires in 2015, which he said is a "little higher than usual."