The Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center ASCC site (a.k.a. The Jones Center) has begun implementing prescribed fire treatments in the ASCC plots this spring. This season’s fire assessments are based around individual hardwoods to help inform the spatial extent of hardwood impacts on fire energy release within the ASCC treatment plots. Andy Whelan, Research Associate II at the Jones Center, is leading this effort, along with Dr. Seth Bigelow, Forest Ecologist at the Jones Center and the ASCC Site Lead. Two years from now, when the ASCC treatment effects have developed further (especially in resistance plots), the Jones Center staff will do ecosystem-level fire assessments. Preliminary results suggest that on wetter days, such as April 23, 2019 in Ichauway, GA, the prescribed fires are burning better in the ASCC transition plots than in the other ASCC treatment plots due to better-developed ground cover and better ventilation from a sparser canopy.
