Clearwater County Highlights October/November | Page 28

28 | NOV. 2016

FireSmart Farm & Ranch Practices
By incorporating some basic FireSmart
principles into regular farming and ranching
practices, you can reduce the potential for
a wildfire to start and limit the impact of a
wildfire that threatens your property.
Dry Grass, Grain Fields, Hay Fields and
Pastureland
Give yourself, your neighbours, your livestock and the firefighters a chance against
wildfire by reducing dry grass and stubble
to prevent a fire from escaping from your
property, or prevent a wildfire from coming
into your yard.
Cut the grass! It sounds simple, but well
maintained short grass can be a good fire
deterrent. When a swiftly moving grass fire
hits a mowed patch of grass, it slows the
spread of the fire and sometimes the fire will
burn itself out.
Grain fields located near or next to building sites should be worked up. At the very
least, work up a strip next to the building site
to act as a fire guard. Dry stubble in the fields
can carry a fire into the yard and with new
farming practices of zero or minimal till, the
accumulation of fine, dry fuel is increased.
Make one or two passes around the yard
before putting your tillage equipment away
for the winter, and you’ll go a long way in
making your yard FireSmart.
If you have hay fields next to the yard,
cut them as late in the season as possible
to minimize re-growth, or mow a strip next
to the building site to act as a fire guard.
Allowing livestock to graze in the fields next
to the yard in the fall will also help to reduce
the amount of vegetation and potential fire
hazard.
Dry pastureland presents the same challenges to wildfire as hayfields and grain
fields. Tilling around the outside perimeter
of pastureland will create a fire break that
could save your field from burning – or
prevent a fire from spreading to your other
fields.
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Fence Lines and Ditches
Unmanaged fence lines and ditches or
roadsides usually have a large accumulation
of grass, weeds and brush which can act as a
wick, carrying intense, quick-spreading fires
into your yard, fields or building sites.
Manage the vegetation along fence lines
and ditches leading up to your building sites,
or to other values for at least 100 metres in
all directions. This can be done by mowing
these areas or mowing them once late in
the fall. Herbicide or a weed-eater can also
minimize the vegetation under the wires and
between the posts.
Remember to check to ensure that all your
corral lines are also free from vegetation that
could wick fire into your fenced feed areas.
Feed Storage
Dry bales are a magnet for sparks and
embers and are always one of the first things
to ignite as a wildfire approaches. No matter
how you store bales, once they ignite, the fire
spreads quickly and is difficult to control or
extinguish.
Fires can start in stored hay from radiant
heat or spontaneous combustion. Spontaneous combustion usually occurs within six
weeks of baling, but can occur in old hay and
straw as well. Fire can occur in loose or baled
hay and straw and is most often caused by
excessive moisture. One of the best ways to
prevent this is to ensure that the hay is cured
to the proper moisture content before baling.
To minimize the spread of fire from straw
and hay bales to the house and to the outbuildings, store bales a good distance from
any structures. The area between the bales
and buildings should be maintained by
reducing the amount of vegetation, preferably down to mineral soil or gravel. If you
have grass in this area, it’s critical that it be
kept mowed as short as possible. It is a good
idea to store your winter supply of bales in
a couple of different locations to minimize
loss in the event of a fire. Try to use the bales