Charles “Butch” Taylor, director of the Texas A&M University Sonora Research Station, will be the lead instructor at the 2010 Prescribed Burn Schools. They will be held in early February in Sargent (Feb. 1), Gibbon (Feb. 2), Wellfleet (Feb. 3) , and Gothenburg (Feb. 4). Taylor also will speak at a firefighters night school Feb. 3 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in North Platte.

Charles “Butch” Taylor

Taylor will cover goals and objectives of burning, fire behavior, weather factors, burning methods and techniques, and burn planning. He also will discuss the advantages of forming prescribed-burn associations, in which community landowners combine in a formal organization to pool labor, equipment, and expertise to conduct private-land prescribed fires. Taylor was the driving force behind formation of the Edwards Plateau Prescribed Burn Association, which today counts more than 600 members in the Texas Hill Country. Local instructors will cover safety, equipment, and how to organize and conduct a burn.

All schools will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with registration at 8:30 a.m. The cost is $5 per attendee, but free for fire department members. A free lunch is included. Pre-registration is required to assure meals. To register, call the Extension office of the host county (see box). 

School participants who attend one class session and one of several training burns scheduled for later in the spring are certified to use Nebraska Prescribed Burn Task Force equipment for a nominal fee to conduct prescribed fires.

Nebraska's Prescribed Burn Task Force

The Prescribed Burn Task Force was formed in 1994. Since then it has held 48 schools for 1,426 students and conducted demonstration burns on 30,380 acres. The schools teach safe and effective use of fire as a management tool.

The task force includes landowners and agency personnel primarily from Buffalo, Custer, Dawson and Lincoln counties. Members include volunteer firefighters, and representatives of the Central Platte, Lower Loup, Tri-Basin, and Twin Platte natural resources districts, the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, UNL Extension, Pheasants and Quail Forever, and the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District.

For more information on the Prescribed Burn Task Force, contact Lara Fondow, task force president, at (308) 535-8025 or lara.fondow@nebraska.gov

Faith Colburn
Communications Specialist
West Central REC, North Platte