Suan Mali reforestation project

Forest fire and fire prevention

 

     Forest fire is the hardest obstacle to deal with, when doing forestation. The Thai and Laos term is fai paa (wild fire), and when the author calls it fai manut (man fire) everybody smiles, because in 99% of the cases fire is caused by deliberate human action.
     The practise of setting on fire is old and described by the first French explorers, when they first visited Isan in the end of the 19th century. Formerly the 3 meters high dry wild grass had a dangerous potential of having tigers hiding in it. But the tigers are long gone. Farmers give various reasons for forest fire: Hunting, fun, madness, cleaning up, hostility against the forestry department because of eviction or hostility the farmers between. And there is one more, which I have seen inside the national part: Preparation for cutting down trees.
A neighbor to the east burns dry grass before ploughing. Even the fire is 300 meters away, the sound of eksploding bamboo is terrifying. Very often these fires gets out of control, mostly because most farmers do not make firebreaks neither towards neighbors nor around priced trees inside the field.
Here another even more scary fire is approaching from west. And getting close to Suan Mali, were there is no high dry grass - only grass and leaves left for rottening.
But Joy has ploughed a firebreak in advance and is watching, and the fire stops in the low grass a meter away from the rattan plants partly covered in dry grass. Making no fire-warning in advance is Joy's way of making joy.

Uncontrolled fire.
     The picture to the left shows the result of a fire in 2001, which nobody took responsibility for, as it burned down 1 hectare of the land which has been left as an experiment in natural regroth (read: no money).

     When the author returned to Suan Mali in January 2002, after 6 months in Denmark, there had been another and far more serious fire (no pictures). Suan Mali looked like at the picture. But nature is hard to kill, already in March the garden had surprisingly changed colour to green again, even though 2 years shorter. And the horizon had returned.

     How it happened, nobody knows. Firebreaks had been established in December, when the dangerous period begins. Money were transferred and the job done. The area should have been split up in 6-8 parts. But all the land had fire. So either the firebreaks were not done properly, or somebody set fire 6-8 places. But mai pen rai - next November December the author intent to supervise the firebreaks himself.

     Forest fire is the hardest obstacle to deal with, when doing forestation. And the biggest economic post. A small spot like Suan Mali could be weeded by hand. But this method does not work, when we are talking about thousands of hectares. The aim of Suan Mali is to demonstrate methods which are adequate for large traces of land.
     Firebreaks is the most reasonable solution, but still expensive. The cost of planting is only a fraction hereof. Next is to make people change habits. And thirdly: Be sure, that you have no enemies.
 

         

August 2002: Firebreak II. From south. One to two hectares un-interfered land on the other side of the creek has burned down every year by fire coming from outside.
Action: 8 metre wide Firebreaks and dividing the land into 4 parts.

August 2002: Firebreak I, width 8 m. Towards south. Here the lowest parts of the valley are paddy-fields, where rice was grown 3 years ago (the land is for free use for those interested, but the neighbours prefer upland rice farmland). The firebreaks were cleared in May and the grass cut first time in July. Second cutting will be mid October. Before the end of November: Final cleaning. Maybe burn dry grass in long rows making a clean track easier to clean later.
 

Two kind of grass

1. Jaa Communit (colloquial term meaning 'communist grass') is the most fire dangerous. From February on the grass is completely dry and can reach a height of 3-5 meters (right). When a dry field caches fire the height of the flames can reach 10-15 meters and burning leaves and ashes drop over a vast area.

2. Jaa Kha (colloquial term meaning 'slave grass') is a low type of grass 1-1.5 m high. This sort is also used for grass roofing and therefore valuable for the locals. After introduction of rubber trees and thereby intensified use of pesticides Jaa Kha is hard to find and the locals are asking for permission to harvest in Suan Mali.

  

 

 
December 2002: Fire with close to Suan Mali. The fire came from another field  one km away following the dry grass along the road
     
 

March 2003: After harvesting tapioca the neighbour's burning of dry grass went out of control and destroyed 75% of Suan Mali. Error: They started burning mid afternoon in strong wind. As compensation the neighbour moved his border 50 m inside, so that Suan Mali can plough.
  

Firebreaks.

     Fire prevention should be finished before New Year. The rainy season normally ends in September and the grass is getting dry and dangerous. In the beginning of December the lowest part of the grass stalks are still humid and still easy to cut, which is not the case in January-February. The grass in the fire-breaks, which were cut 3 months ago, is very easy to cut.

     The seasonal wind has changed to NE marking the cold dry season. No rain is expected except for a few showers in March-April. The rainy season starts in late May.

     At night-time there is mostly no wind. Burning of grass is best at sunrise, when the grass is wet of dew. Alternatively right after sunset.

     Night-time temperatures can go down to 4 degrees (normally 10-15 deg.) and there is dew on the grass in the mornings, which makes the morning-fires easier to control.
     At day-time the wind is strong and field burning is dangerous. Burning of fields after dusk is very common and fires are seen every night from December.

The last work in September 2003.
In September all fire-breaks were cleared by knife.
The second day the dry grass was raked into the middle of the path and the third morning at sunrise before the usual wind the grass was burned in long rows.
Bamboo near the fire-breaks was cut, because if on fire burning debris will go up with the heat and eventually lit grass in the next block.
Some trees were cut in order to give space and light to more valuable trees.

Work in December 2003.
Cut all fire-breaks with long knifes. Width: 6-8 m.
Clear a path in the middle using hoes. Width: 0.4 m
Collect grass by rake.

Day 1
2 workers: The regulars who also did the job in September started the work after a discussion of old experiences and new methods. The clearing started from NE – the direction of the wind. And the direction of tapioca fields with dry grass.

Day 2
8 workers in 2 groups with one of the men above leading each group: 2 knifes, 1 hoe and 1 rake.

Day 3
The 2 workers finishing details, discussing yesterdays work and future work to be done until the rain next grass-cutting in July-August. Maintenance: Cleaning the fire-breaks for grass and leaves using rakes.

'Fire-sweeping'
When burning the collected dry grass the cleaned area can be extended by sweeping burning grass and the glowing fire ball in over the nearby grass. This must be done with great care.

Field-burning
Before burning down a field, especially if the grass is the high jaa communit, a minimum of 5-6 m grass has to be laid down to the ground. This can be done by driving around the field with a tractor or manually by 2 men with a heavy piece of timber. A one meter boarder-zone to the neighbouring field is cleaned by knives and rakes.
Result: All trampled grass burned but not all the standing grass. This might be due to morning dew. The fire danger is eliminated but extra grass cleaning is needed.
 



December 2003:
Fire-belts burning at sunrise, when there mostly is no wind and the grass burns slowly due to being wet by dew.

  
 
     
 
The sun is up and within an hour it gets windy and makes further burning dangerous. When reaching the neighbours field
 
Above: Fire 2 km away...   the work is postponed until next sunrise.

Suan Mali was divided into locks with clean borders around.

 
March 2004: Fire again. This time only 50% of Suan Mali was burned. The fire stopped at the 3rd fire break (above)
 

This fire started inside Suan Mali (!). Maybe hunters chasing small game - maybe the giant tae tree above was the target... It survived another 3 years before somebody cut it down.
 
Next year fire protection again    
 
and also uncontrolled bush-fire again   this time coming from outside (February, 2005)
 
Fire in company with strong wind is hard to fight   A similar fire with no wind was stopped (December, 2007)
 
   
January 2008: Fire belts are established again.
 
     
Top hill HOME Pristine forest in the area
Sloping land Link page Conflicting interests
Dikes against erosion Maps Community forestation
The slope and the creek Methods of reforestation  
Forest fire Botanical lists in Thai, Isan, Lao and English

Last upgraded: January 2008