So you’ve got a huge pile of brush that you need to burn, But not exactly sure how to go about it?
Burning slash is an effective way to keep your forest healthy, and help mitigate the severity of wildfires by removing small brush and dead trees from the area.
I like to keep a clear, defensible space around my home. Most of the trees and brush I clear get turned into firewood to heat my home or into woodchips for use around the property. But we have a lot of woodland around our house, and thanks the the IPS bark beetle we have a lot of dead trees. Not everything can get used to its full potential so it goes to the slash pile.
As a homeowner and a good steward to your land it is your responsibility to maintain a healthy and safe environment in your forest and around your homestead. You must mitigate risk in fire prone areas by clearing and burning slash
Be Smart And Be Safe
Always have a shovel, rake, and water with you .
Bring a thick pair of leather gloves and do not wear flammable clothes. This is a good time to break out the full Carhartt kit the fire gets hot while you are maintaining it.
Make a mental plan of how you are going to do this and be safe about it.
Be aware of the current weather conditions.
Make sure that you don’t start a fire on a day that is supposed to be windy. It could be an extremely calm morning and next thing you know the winds start raging halfway thru your fire and start blowing embers all over the place.
Check your local laws! Make sure you are allowed to burn slash in your area.
Some jurisdictions require a burn permit, If a permit is required Make sure you have the permit with you while you burn.
Let your local fire jurisdiction and neighbors know that you will be burning slash. We post on our local areas facebook that we are burning slash and where we are located. Than anybody who sees smoke from that area is aware of what is going on.
I live in the high desert. It is very dry here and the land always seems primed and ready to burn. I always wait until after a good snowstorm has happened or do it while it is snowing.
I would recommend always burning your slash while there is a couple inches of snow on the ground. It adds a great layer of safety to the entire process. Having the snow also makes dealing with extinguishing the fire way easier. It takes lots of water to put out a big slash pile fire.
Building Your Pile
Make sure the area around where you are going to build your pile is clear. Remove any flammables away from the immediate area.
Keep your pile wider than it is tall. If you have a lot of material to burn. Make multiple small slash piles instead of one massive pile. The smaller piles will be much easier to maintain and they will burn faster.
If your only wanting to burn in one area make a long small pile. My last slash pile was about 20′ long x 6′ wide and 4′ high. It took about 10 hours start to finish.
Make sure there are no utilities or powerlines nearby. Be sure to think about what is above and under the fire. You don’t want to have a massive fire right above an underground line of some sort.
Use a good mix of sizes of fuel. Put your smaller brush towards the bottom of your pile. With your biggest logs and branches on the top of your fire.
Avoid putting stumps and other extremely large dense logs on the fire. They will take a very long time to burn all the way thru. If you are burning larger stumps and whatnot plan on watching that fire for at least 10 Hours, probably longer.
Don’t burn
- Rubbers, and plastics
- Household trash
- construction debris
- Treated lumber
- Anything toxic
Ignition
Since you are burning your pile after a fresh snowfall it is going to be hard to get started.
My preferred way to get the fire going is with a Propane torch.
But you can also use dry pine needles, sawdust drenched in diesel fuel or some crumpled up newspaper.
NEVER USE GASOLINE TO START YOUR FIRE
Start your fire in the middle of the pile so you don’t have 20′ tall flames ripping around once all the small brush catches.
If you are burning multiple piles get the first pile going and make sure you have favorable wind conditions and that everything is burning like you want it to. If all looks good than start up your other piles.
Only start as many piles as you have the manpower to watch and maintain. 2-4 piles per person in close proximity is pretty doable. You must have a visual on all fires you start at all times.
Maintain Your Fire
As your fires burn use your shovel to re-pile any unburnt or large material back into the center of the fire. Try to burn everything to a fine ash.
This part takes the longest. I like to make the rounds every 30 minutes or so and juice up each fire. Making sure everything is burning nicely and moving the coal bed inward as it becomes smaller.
I like to plop my chair down by the fire and crack open a nice book. This is a great excuse to sit around the fire all day “relaxing” and enjoying the sounds and sights of nature While getting lost in a good novel. I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho during my last fire. A great tale about fulfilling ones destiny.
Extinguishing The Coals
After a couple of hours you should be left with a nice bed of coals.
Douse the coals with water, snow , and or soil.
Use your shovel and rake to mix everything around. Making sure that you have extinguished the fire.
I like to cover the fire with a huge pile of snow.
But just because it is covered with snow doesn’t mean the fire is out. The coals can smolder for days. I make it a point to go back and visit the fire multiple times over the next 24 hours. Mixing everything around and adding more snow. Making sure that everything is out and not still smoldering.
The fire is truly only out once everything is cold to the touch.
In most places your fire must be out by nightfall. If it is dark and your fire is still raging you will have to call the fire department and have them come put the fire out. So be prepared and get an early start, Burning a large pile can take 6-10 hrs or longer.
The last thing you want is to think you are good to go, and than all of a sudden the wind starts raging and you have embers from deep within your pit flying all over the place.
Make smokey the bear proud! Be sure everything is dead out before you call it a day.
Referance
I found these articles extremely helpful before doing my first burn
https://www.nachi.org/slash-piles.htm
https://csfs.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/SS-Slash-Burning-Guide2015.pdf