Controlled Burns

[jthorsonParticipant]

Fri the 26th, CB&MB and I did some caching at Bong. To our surprise we encountered rangers doing some controlled burns in the area north of 142 and along the road that runs north from the “employee area”. No doubt, some number of permanent caches are puddles of plastic or ammo boxes full of melted plastic.

Whether further burns are planned we cannot say. Also puzzling was the placement and type of tree along the same road that appear to be marked for removal.

FYI

[Trekkin and BirdinParticipant]

Jeff, Thanks for the timely heads up.

As an aside, I’ve always thought it would be fun to take part in one of these. We watched a “practice burn” of an old barn a couple blocks from the house a few years back and the intensity of heat is staggering.

[JimandLindaParticipant]

One of the reasons the DNR, and other Land Managers, want Notification Forms, is because of “controlled burns”. They can remove the containers before the burn and replace it or hold it, while notifying the CO.

Has anyone EVER been notified by the Land Manager about their cache?

Just curious, as a few were “melted” on the Wiouwash Trail a couple years ago.

[TyeDyeSkyGuyParticipant]

I contacted John Meyer, the park Manager, to ask about any further burns they may have, and also if cache owners have been contacted. I’ll post when I have any further info.

[TyeDyeSkyGuyParticipant]

Here is a copy of of his return email.

Hello Jay,
Please send me your mailing address and I can mail you a map of the property with areas proposed for prescribed burning this year shaded in.

The last of our burns should be done in the beginning of June.

Whether or not a unit can be burned on any specific day is determined by wind speed and direction, humidity and personnel available that day,

It is common that 2-3 potential units could be burned on any given day and is decided only on the morning of the actual burn due to fluctuating weather conditions. Sometimes a burn is completed early and weather conditions will be right to get a small secondary burn done.

Richard Bong State Recreation Area does not notify cache owners about prescribed burn activities. The geocachers that I communicate with here at the park have been aware that we burn during the spring time and will ask me for information about areas to be burned that season as you are doing at this time. We then inform them or give them a map. The cache owners can then remove their cache if they feel it is at risk.

The cache submission forms are turned into the park when they are created. We do not go through the forms to correlate locations with potential burn units. We have many forms from many years. Cache owners will rarely (two people in six years in my immediate experience) tell me that a cache has been removed.

If a person has caches on any DNR lands in the Spring, they should contact property managers of those locations as you have to get a map of proposed burn units. Proposed burn units are hopefully scheduled as early as January of that year, but depending on state locations and personnel, the plans could be known only as late as March and April. The property managers should be able to tell cache owners if an area might be burned
based on their knowledge of their property – regardless if the actual specific prescription is written. For example, I generally know that Unit XYZ will not be burned this year since it burned well the previous year.

I apologize if any caches were lost due to the burns. My brother-in-law is very big into geocaching and has caches here on the property. I personally feel that geocaching is a great activity because it gets people off trails and into the field for a more personal and tactile experience with the environment.

Since you are a member of WGA, would you be interested in contacting us each year in February to get a map of potential proposed burn units and relay that information to people with caches on Richard Bong? I think it would be a great thing if a geocacher took responsibility for putting out the information on the WGA website so that anyone could access it and know ahead of time -especially if they forget that we burn every spring out here.

Thanks for any help you can give us.

John R. Meyer
Park Manager
Richard Bong State Recreation Area
26313 Burlington Road
Kansasville, WI 53139
Phone 262-878-5606
Fax 262-878-5615
e-mail [email protected]

I have agreed to take on this responsibility with the Park in the future.

[JimandLindaParticipant]

Talk about an informative e-mail! He makes very valid points. It would be difficult to notify all cachers, especially if the weather isn’t cooperating for the burn times.

Thanks for the info and shouldering the load for this area of the game, TDSG! 😀

[TyeDyeSkyGuyParticipant]

I recieved a copy of the map. If anyone would like a copy, I can email it to you. Just post here, or send me a PM

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