Preliminary Study On Applications Of Prescribed Burning In Forest Management

A preliminary study has been conducted on the applications of prescribed burning in forest management. The results show that prescribed burning can increase the efficiency of site preparation by 40% and surviving rates the seedling by 4%. The height growth and ground diameter has increased significantly ranging from 20% to 100%. The average height of broadleaved trees 4 years after the burn is 2.1 m and averaged ground diameter is 2.2 cm. The DBHs of poplar and birch 22 years after the burn range from 8.5 to 11.0 cm with averaged tree height of 12 m. Burning also increases the yield of fern by 70% with 4-5 days earlier than usual germination time, which indicates that burning is an effective methods to develop wild vegetables.Estimation made based on the experiments that the total cost for the management of 10 year poplar and birch forest regenerated post prescribed burning is 750 RMB Yuans per hectare, saving 450 RMB Yuans per hectare accounting for 37% of the former total cost. It has a bright future to use the cheap prescribed burning technique to develop green wild vegetables. When combined with Natural Forest Conservation Project, this technology can transform forest fire prevention from consumption type into developing type. Once it has been widely introduced into forestry line, it can accelerate the process of forest cultivation and increase forestry workers' income, which will be a new economic growth point for forestry.