Fire plays an important role in managing forest land. To better understand the science behind prescribed burns, the Louisiana Ecological Forestry Center held a burn certification course.
For southern pine forests, fire is an instrument used to enhance them. It helps to remove competition for essential nutrients and allows sunlight to penetrate, making fire an essential and useful tool.
Participants in the certification course learned about what conditions were favorable for burning and when prescribed burns should not be conducted. “Through education that goes along with the certification, then we can ensure people understand what are the conditions that will cause you to have problems and how to avoid those problems,” according to Neils De Hoop with the LSU AgCenter.