 Cedar trees or woody encroachment has kind of been an issue in the southern plains. Here in southern South Dakota we're kind of at the front end of that movement north. North of here along the river the cedars aren't as bad as they are here. You go south along the river they're worse there than they are here. It is moving upriver. It's kind of a glacier heading north you know. Well we actually have the conversion of land use and that's the conversion of grassland to a forested system. It just slowly they got more and more and more. Just absolutely nothing will grow under those thick canopy cedar trees. There's so much grazing land that has been lost to ranchers in this area to these cedar trees and you know that translates to dollars in their in their pocket books. They done a study and they figured out that the cedar tree was had taken over like 30% of the range land in this area so then we decided you know something needs to be done. We lost over half of our grazing. We just aren't going to have any pasture. We've been taught that there's value in trees and there are however on the prairie it's not the tree it's the grass that should be there. That really kind of leads into the ecology of the prairie. You know the prairie of the grasslands why do we have the grasslands it's a function of three things. It's climate and the grazing animal and it's fire. Up here in South Dakota you know the element of fire has been taken out of range land management. Really ever since this area was homesteaded that has allowed these cedar trees to really start to take over this part of the part of the state up and down the Missouri River. If you do just strictly mechanical treatments what happens is you kind of make the cedars mad and you just have a flush of little seedlings come back if you just do shredding or clipping. You can't go down there with a chainsaw or a weed eater and get rid of the trees they're just too many. It used to be when somebody hollered fire you go put it out so I think fear is probably the biggest thing with a lot of it. For years everybody was afraid of fire you have to respect fire but you don't have to be afraid of it. Prescribed burning is definitely new in South Dakota and it's you know it still can be a naughty word in a lot of parts of the state and even in certain areas around here yet. A big part of the fear is what if the fire gets away. Fire can be beneficial if it's used correctly. If you write a prescribed burn plan and then follow that plan you're going to reduce your risk a lot. You know if a rancher does want to do a prescribed burn it is about a year's worth of planning to get it done. At minimum three to four field visits we GPS the area we need to figure out our escape routes our ignition plan where gates are where water facilities are what kind of wind we're gonna look at that day if there's any hazard spots you know somebody's house or other corral. With the burn plan you're right down what you're gonna do have a prescribed fire to get rid of cedar trees where you list the land description of where you're gonna have it when how. It takes away a lot of that fear factor. It's a slow process we've got to change people's mindset of not being scared of fire respected know what you're doing but it it can work. So the Mid-Missouri River prescribed burn association it's the first ever prescribed burn association in South Dakota. It's a landowner driven association. It was started in 2015 2016 we did the first scheduled prescribed burns here in the River Breaks. We only have one burn association in South Dakota right now but there's a need for more and all it takes is a handful of willing people to get something started. The people that from the association would come out have done a dozen burns whatever the number is many. We handle a lot of the burn plans meeting with the landowners handling the paperwork side of it and then you know once it comes to do the actual burn on the day of the burn then you know we also help with that. Before we will do a prescribed burn on that ranchers property we do require proof of liability insurance. That's also the reason for the prescribed burn plan that's kind of their insurance policy as well. You are the landowner you are the boss but we would assist you with anything that we could and give you advice of how to pull off a safe prescribed burn. It's really important to have an adequate fuel load for a successful burn. You know we always look at trying to have at least three to four thousand pounds per acre of forage to really get a good fuel load to do some damage to the cedar trees. How do you manage the fuels in preparation for a fire? You can do that by grazing have your fences set up so if you're going to have a fire on whatever area you pick don't let the cattle in there maybe for a year to build the fuels to make the fire that will kill the trees. Like Rich here he's this pasture has been deferred for almost two years and he's got an awesome fuel load well over you know at least four thousand pounds maybe five thousand pounds per acre out here. When you're talking real thick cedar sand of 20 and 30 foot cedars the mechanical and the fire have to work together. You have to do some clipping and you have to do some stuffing them into the thicker stands to build that ladder fuel. So ladder fuel is basically just these dead carcasses of cedar trees that have been cut down and then Rich will take his skid steer like he's done here and shoves them into the still live stands of cedar trees. And then when they we shove them into there and light that on fire then it'll really take off and then we get a mower and kind of clear a black line a line that we can that we're not afraid to light up because it won't get away. If you have a pasture that is full of just little cedar trees about like this that are just starting to come then you know fire will take care of that versus and it'll be much more cost effective with a fire than versus trying to go out and clip all the little cedar trees that are one, two, three foot. Even with prescribed fire it's not going to be a thing that we would burn this area off and then never have to do it again. It's something that you have to do. While we were setting up for this I just glanced at the ground behind me. There's two little cedar trees about half inch tall. They won't quit. We have to stop them. So the the natural system you know they talk about we're kind of in the mixed grass prairie region here and probably looking at five to ten years for a fire return interval. Since this is all kind of brand new to South Dakota, South Dakota State University we've started conducting some studies. What we were finding in that study is is that after eight years the growth of those cedar trees just really starts exploding. Really what we're finding the sweet spot is about eight to ten years. You don't want to go past that for a return interval for another prescribed burn to keep everything at bay. This should have been burned 20, 40, 50 years ago when the trees were small. You don't have to have a terrible roaring fire to kill a cedar tree that is that big. Some people don't understand that you know you see a little seedling out there about that tall and you think it's you know maybe a year or two old. It's really not. It's about three or four years old. That cedar tree is probably at the same height as your grass level at about three to four years. So when you get to that about to that eight to ten years you know that cedar tree is probably at about five feet, six feet. And that's where like Sean said if we can get a handle on these trees when they're two and three foot tall that's a lot more economical and beneficial to do it then than it is when they're 20, 30 foot tall. If they get after them now when they're a foot and a half two feet tall it's going to take less work, less equipment, there's a lot less danger with it. It has to be done and they need to get it started now. It's a job selling it because like I say for years everybody was afraid of fire. Well if you you have to respect fire but you don't have to be afraid of it. If you write a prescribed burn plan and then follow that plan you're going to reduce your risk a lot and that's what I said before. I think it's time we take a calculated risk at it do everything we can to mitigate the danger of it getting away and then go ahead and do it.