F-igure 1. — Aveas of experimental 

 burning attempts from fall 

 1974 to fall 1976. 



R 



( i 



1 Cherry Springs 



81ackwel> 



Canyon 



Ignition 



Three tools for igniting trees were compared- -conventional drip torches, flame- 

 throwers, and the orchard heater lighter. The latter, also called the smudge pot light- 

 er, was found to be the ideal tool (Bruner 1977) because its long spout gives a good 

 pouring balance and provides some distance between the user and the flame. It emits a 

 heavy stream of fuel which, when mixed 50-50 (50 percent gasoline and 50 percent diesel 

 oil), remains burning on the bark or needles for 10 to 20 seconds. To ignite a tree, 

 pour a heavy stream of burning fuel up and down the trunk from the ground up to 5 or 

 6 feet. The dead needles on the ground and any shrubs under the tree should be ignited 

 while backing out from under the canopy on the windward side. By directly lighting 

 several trees, the ambient temperature of the area increases rapidly and understory 

 plants are ignited. It is this initial torch of several trees producing a flame length 

 of 20 to 30 feet that is necessary to develop a fire which will carry and create a clean 

 burn (fig. 2). Heat and flame are not generated fast enough if only the shrubs are lit, 

 especially those in the tree interspaces. Two safety precautions of the tool are: gaso- 

 line must be well mixed with diesel oil and the antiflashback screen must be present in 

 the spout. 



Several tecliniques have been tried in igniting pinyon- juniper stands. The best 

 method is to have two people walk perpendicular to the wind along the windward edge of 

 the area to be burned (headfiring) . The lead person can either leave unlit holes for 

 the following person to light, or the two people can leap frog past one another. 

 Either way, this has been the easiest and the most efficient way to start pinyon- juniper 

 fires. 



2 



