This is a neighbor-helping-neighbor burn. Charlie King and his neighbors, Dale & Jerry Swanner, will be burning their land together; two separate tracts that are contiguous. The land has mixed-aged longleaf, totaling about 7 acres. Fire was reintroduced to this stand last year. This is a follow up burn to improve forest health and reduce fuel loads.

If you can attend the burn, please send a text message to 910-603-1052, so we know who to expect, and if the burn is cancelled, we will let you know.

Please wear closed-toe shoes and non-synthetic clothes. We will provide all the tools needed. You may want to bring your own gloves and eye protection. Bring drinking water. We will have plenty of tools on site.

Please use Carver’s Creek State Park Sandhill’s Access address (link below) to get to the burn unit. You will see the dirt driveway (McCLoskey Rd.) to the left which shares the entry to the State Park. Please look for and follow the Event signs.

This will be a 4.5 acre in-stand burn under a mature canopy of longleaf and a beautiful wiregrass groundcover. This will be a certification burn for our new hire Courtney Steed of Prospect, NC who is the Lumbee Outreach Coordinator for the SPBA. This burn will reduce wildfire hazards and promote groundcover restoration.

If you can join us, please send a text message to 910-603-1052, so we know who to expect, and if the burn is cancelled, we will let you know.
Please wear closed-toe shoes and non-synthetic clothes. We will provide all the tools needed. You may want to bring your own gloves and eye protection. Bring drinking water.

Follow the SPBA event signs to park.

Our 1st event of the year is a Longleaf seedling planting day at one of our newest landowners’ property. This Saturday come join us and learn how to plant containerized longleaf and how to prepare and plan your sites for planting. Depending on what you have to start with, there are many different site prep techniques.

This Saturday, we’ll see what the Louyas did to prepare their land as they brought in and used a whole tree chipper. We will be providing trees and tools. All you have to do is show up. RSVP is not required. There will be instructions on how to plant longleaf at 10 am, but please feel free to come at any time between 10-2.

Address: Please text 910-603-1052 to request.

Join the Sandhills Prescribed Burn Association and ForestHer NC for an opportunity to learn about burning in the Sandhills region of North Carolina. We will be burning in a longleaf pine ecosystem to maintain the diversity of native warm season grasses and restore wildlife habitat.

Controlled burns, or prescribed fire, is the planned use of fire under predetermined weather and fuel parameters to obtain specific management objectives. And sometimes, even after hours of planning, the weather decides to not cooperate. Burn managers know at least a few days in advance if fire weather is going to be good to burn. Our current burn date is May 4, with May 5 and May 6 as backup. Please keep all three dates reserved as workshop possibilities. The agenda will be the same regardless of the date.

Agenda

• 5:00 pm: Meet at burn location

• 5:30 pm: Briefing and logistics

• 7:30 pm: On-site community dinner (provided)

One of the big concepts we introduce to all our landowners is combining forest thinning with prescribed fire (thin and burn). We have learned that combining a thinning operation in advanced of or in combination with prescribed fire can greatly accelerate the restoration of your forest land. It can also make it easier to reintroduce fire in to long unburned stands. With so many new landowners becoming involved with the SPBA we thought it would be good to combine these two practices into one demonstration.

Please join us this Thursday, March 16th at 5:00 p.m., along with our mentor Terry Sharpe to tour a property on the edge of the Sandhills/Piedmont that is moving towards Longleaf but has mixed hardwood/pine stands with heavy clay soils. Terry will lead us on a tour of the property discussing different techniques landowners can use to accomplish thinning in their forest stands. This will be followed by a small prescribed burn in one of the stands.

If you can join us, please send a text message to 910-603-1052, so we know who to expect, and if the burn is cancelled, we will let you know. Also, we will send you the address.

The NC Sandhills PBA is having a “Tools of the Trade” Field Day. This event will feature Kestrels, drip torches, blowers, brush saws, chain saws, PPE, and four-wheeler/tractors. Please bring drinking water. Due to limited space at the site, we’re limiting the number of people to 25. Please feel free to bring any unique tools of your own and all the questions you might want answered.

     *We will be following the latest CDC guidelines for Outdoor Gatherings

RSVP: Jesse Wimberley, 910-603-1052, jesse@sandhillspba.org

The NC Sandhills PBA invites you to join Forester Melvin Ezzell at “Nick’s Creek Longleaf Reserve” for a Thinning/Chipping Field Day event. Nick’s Creek is an outdoor classroom currently at the beginning of its restoration process. At this event you will get to talk with Melvin and see before and after results from a thinning/chipping operation and get all your questions answered. Due to the logistics of the site, we need to limit the size of the group to 25. 

 *We will be following the CDC’s guidelines for Outdoor Gatherings

RSVP: Jesse Wimberley, 910-603-1052, jesse@sandhillspba.org

The N.C. Sandhills Game Lands are one of the best examples of restored longleaf in North Carolina. Please join us for our Fall Forestry Tour as we explore one of North Carolina’s best kept secrets. Our tour will be led by Terry Sharpe and Jeff Marcus who have decades of experience and deep knowledge of this biologically rich landscape. This event will be outside and we will be touring in our private vehicles to ensure public safety. Since we are limiting this event to 25 participants, please RSVP: Jesse Wimberley, jesse@sandhillspba.org, or (910) 603-1052, and see attached flyer for details.

Date: Sunday, October 25th

Time: 1:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m. 

Where: Meeting at the Hoffman BP Station

2183 McDonald Church Rd. 

Hoffman, NC 28347 

N.C. State Forestry Extension is sponsoring this upcoming webinar titled, “Woods for Wildlife: Forest Management in Wetlands and Conservation Status Focusing on Rare and Endangered Species.” Date: Thursday, October 15th, Time: 1:00 p.m. Attached is the flyer. Please click link to access the webinar, register, and gather more information about this event:

Register here:

https://ufl.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lGveI7-rQFqRq1NtsdgG8w

The NC Prescribed Fire Council (PFC ncprescribedfirecouncil.org) is a group of agencies and individuals across North Carolina who come together to "educate and advocate" for prescribed fire (Rx fire). The PFC has been very supportive of our PBA; last year they assisted us in a growing season burn and duff workshop. At our annual meetings we try to bring in speakers who address topics that are important to private landowners.

This year due to the virus, the annual meeting will be online only, which makes it more accessible for all of us, so please join us, if you can (please see attached flyer and call me if you have any questions).

We are still meeting will individual landowners on a regular basis. Please feel free to set up a time to meet with me and our forester to schedule a site visit or to go over any management issues you may want to discuss.