May 20, 2014

Little Manatee River State Park

Wimauma, FL

We had been warned that there was a prescribed burn scheduled to take place near our complex today if the wind conditions were favorable.

The following is an excerpt taken from the US Forest Service Website.
The Forest Service manages prescribed fires and even some wildfires to benefit natural resources and reduce the risk of unwanted wildfires in the future. The agency also uses hand tools and machines to thin overgrown sites in preparation for the eventual return of fire.
More prescribed fires mean fewer extreme wildfires.



Specialists write burn plans for prescribed fires. Burn plans identify – or prescribe – the best conditions under which trees and other plants will burn to get the best results safely. Burn plans consider temperature, humidity, wind, moisture of the vegetation, and conditions for the dispersal of smoke. Prescribed fire specialists compare conditions on the ground to those outlined in burn plans before deciding whether to burn on a given day.

 

 
The trucks began arriving around 10AM.

The crew held a meeting to discuss the procedures and went over the map of the area to be burned.

They suited up and took off.

In the meantime, Monte backed the brush hog into the garage as far as he could so he could work on the tractor without being in the direct sun.

One of the rangers had mentioned to Monte that the parking brake on the tractor was not holding. 

 Monte cleaned all the debris off the area around the brake lines. He discovered that the brake line cable was not attached to anything on the right side. He removed the brake line, pounded out kinks in the metal jacket that covers the cable passing through the jacket. Once the cable was moving freely, Monte lubricated it.

  He then attached the cable to the proper brackets and rerouted the brake line to the left side. And then reattached it on the left side and adjusted the cable. The brake is working properly now.

 

When a car pulled into the compound that Monte didn’t recognize he went over to investigate and discovered the driver was here to take blood samples from the resident chickens. WHAT?

It seems that there are four or five chickens living in the park whose sole purpose is to get bitten by mosquitoes. The chickens are usually kept in another area of the park but due to the prescribed burn were moved into our compound.

Blood samples are taken twice a week to test for West Nile virus.

I was sitting outside when I noticed some smoke off in the distance.

  Within a half hour the smoke had gotten so close that I retreated inside to close up all the windows.

Monte began spraying water on the roof and slide toppers as ash got closer to our location.

At one point the ash was so heavy it almost looked like rain.

 

I stayed inside the rest of the day but every time Monte opened the door to come in or go out we were assailed with the acrid stench of thick smoke.
All evening we could hear trucks entering and leaving the compound.