BY TRACY LEE TATE
Special to the Times
LAKE BUTLER— Recently, the Florida Forest Service presented the Board of County Commissioners with a report about forest-related incidents in Union County and how the FFS has dealt with them.
The document, covering the period between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, reports 23 county wildfires, which burned 38.81 acres of forest, grass, and brush. About 87% were human-caused fires (debris burning), with the remainder caused by natural occurrences. Forest Rangers and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement investigated all the fires. In addition to the documented wildfires, Forestry personnel answered numerous calls reporting possible wildfires, unauthorized burning, and smoke complaints.
The Florida Forest Service enforces the state’s forest fire laws and open burning regulations. When people want to burn land clearing piles, agriculture, or silviculture burnings, they must call the service to get a burning authorization. Such authorizations were issued to 358 individuals in the county during the period covered by the report. This burning accounted for 3,643 acres legally burned in Union County, including 712 piles of debris from land clearing.
The service issued 10 Notices of Violations to persons who violated the open burning laws. Such violations included burning without authorization, allowing fires to escape control, and not observing standard setback distances or legal burning hours.
The service’s on-site inspection and landowner assistance program for burning in smoke-sensitive areas and in cases of first-time burners are valuable tools in the fire prevention program. The service inspected 39 landowners during the past fiscal year. This helps ensure that setback requirements are met and allows contact between Forest Service personnel and the individual responsible for the burn before it takes place, enabling service representatives to give guidance and confidently approve the burn.
The Forest Service has continued to work with Union County Fire Department personnel to promote fire prevention, going into the schools and informing students about fire safety. The focus is on students at Lake Butler Elementary School, but information is also shared with local groups and organizations to be involved in the community. Forestry Service personnel visit local events, such as the recent Back to Raiford Day celebration, to talk with residents and hand out age-appropriate information and small gifts (often featuring Smokey Bear) to help children learn and remember fire safety and enjoy their day.
The Forest Service is not just about policing individuals burning on their property and bringing Smokey Bear to see little kids; the Service is just that, a service that can/will benefit landowners by keeping their trees healthy and happy. The service is the outreach arm of several programs that can benefit county residents in silviculture areas, be it trees in the landscaping around their property or acres planted in trees to be marketed for a profit. The forest industry has contributed to the Union County economy for over 100 years. The county has been assessed at about 140,000 acres of forest land – 86% of the county’s total land area. According to a University of Florida study, about 53% of that forest land is planted in industrial timber, 42% in non-industrial forest, and the county or state owns the remaining 5%. Union County contributes about $54 million of the state’s $13 billion in annual sales of forest products and provides 770 jobs to residents. Since the mid-90s, Union County has seen a shift in forest land ownership from forest industry to private non-industrial forest (PNIF). One of forestry’s main goals is to promote sound management of the state’s PNIF and to assist owners in practices like multiple-use land management techniques and using their forest land for timber, recreation, wildlife, and aesthetics.
The Forest Stewardship Program is defined as “the active management of forests and related resources to promote a productive, healthy condition for present and future generations and to increase the economic, environmental, and social benefits of these lands.” Forest Stewards are landowners committed to the long-term management of their forest land. Currently, there are 8,750 acres actively enrolled in the program – 1,000 acres of which have come into the program this past year. Connected with this program in the American Tree Farm System, where the lands are certified. In Union County, 18,300 acres are certified under this system.
There are several cost-share and land-owner assistance programs offered to private landowners. Several state and federal agencies provide financial assistance programs to help small landowners cover the cost of maintaining their forests. Among these programs are the Southern Pine Beetle Assistance and Prevention Program, the Florida Future Forests Program, the Forest Management plans that the county Forester will create for PNIF land owners, and Forest Health and Disease Monitoring. The service constantly trains rangers in the new and best practices to use in their programs. It passes them on to landowners and the community through education programs with the FFA, 4-H, various clubs and organizations, and in conjunction with the UF Extension Service.
Union (and Bradford) county residents can call the local forester at the New River Forestry Station for more information about the Forestry Service or the various programs they administer. This station, located at 11367 SR-100 West in Lake Butler, serves both Bradford and Union counties. Residents of either county can call Forester Rachel Kyle at (386)496-2190.
Austin Thomas, Forest Area Supervisor for Bradford and Union counties, and Bradford/Union CFA Forester Rachel Kyle can answer questions and advise landowners about fire safety and other silviculture issues.
