22-03-2025
300 acres of land burned on Fort Benning
FT. BENNING, Ga. () — January through May is prime time for Fort Benning to conduct the majority of their prescribed burns.
According to the fort's Natural resources branch, prescribed burns remove burnable fuel that accumulates within the forest and access the forested landscape without damaging the forest ecosystem.
James Parker, Branch chief for Natural resources on Fort Bennings says roughly 40 million rounds are fired a year on the installation through training.
'They start wildfires, so by doing prescribed burning, you keep those fuel loads manageable. So when we do have training fires, it's easy to control and manage,' says Parker.
This year, the military post has conducted 84 burns. They have 79 remaining.
On Friday, 300 acres of land was burned in about an hour. Parker and his team plan to burn 72,000 acres by the end of the year.
Parker explained the planning process for prescribed burns is extensive as there are many uncontrollable factors when it comes to burning like weather.
The natural resource team also has to be strategic where they burn as Fort Benning has millions of dollars of assets in burning areas.
Tommy Hutcherson, Forester Technician for the Natural Resources Branch on Fort. Benning says they treat over 10,000 protected trees before burning.
Trees that are protected belong to the Red Cockaded Woodpecker which is a species of concern.
'The tree would survive even if it burned all the way up to the cavity,' Hutcherson says. 'In the middle of April and May, one of the cavities in the clusters will have babies in it. We don't want to burn the babies up,' Hutcherson says.
'Main things that we're trying to protect are the bands that are identifiers for the army and for our personnel to be able to find the trees,' Hutcherson adds.
The Natural Resources maintain roughly 1,200 miles of no named trails and fire breaks to aid in fire control. They work roughly 300 miles a year.
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