Is my one acre meadow a fire hazard?

June 21, 2010 7:03 AM

Do I really have to mow my one acre meadow to prevent fire hazards?

I have a one acre meadow right in the middle of a dense old growth forest. There is a river on one side a road on the other, my house with a green zone around it to the east and my neighbor has created a firebreak on his side on the west.

No one is asking me to mow the meadow. I don't want to mow the meadow. But am I creating a fire hazard? If there is a forest fire here will it really matter in the big picture if my meadow is not mowed?

The government forest service has been here to help me create a forest plan and they suggested I kill all the weeds in the meadow with herbicide. Twice a year. There is no way I will do that. They didn't seem concerned at all about fire hazards. In fact they seemed really clueless about what to do with it.

Grazing animals are not an option because I can't afford to fence it right now.

I am mainly concerned about my responsibilities to my neighbors. Am I putting them in danger or is a one acre meadow any significance in a forest fire scenario? I have no neighbors with similar yards. Everyone pretty much has densely forested acreage with no meadows.

Can I make it a designated wildlife area somehow to legitimize keeping it un-mowed?

posted by anonymous to science & nature (14 answers total)

Controlling invasive weeds is a good thing. You can do this with varying combinations of mowing, herbicides, replanting, hand-control, fire, etc. There should be a county weed control board, weed experts at the local extension office, and possibly a weed person at the local NRCS, conservation district, or other farmer-support office. But no, mowing and herbicides are not your only solutions.
posted by Forktine at 7:15 AM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

One acre meadow in the middle of forest - won't the meadow turn to forest soon?
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 7:19 AM on June 21, 2010

Depending on where you are, there may be certain weeds designated as “noxious” (I'm thinking of things like field bindweed). If you have them on your property, you must get rid of them by any means necessary. To leave them is to risk prosecution.
posted by scruss at 7:23 AM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

I don't think you need to mow but you could mow once or twice a season. If you do not mow, however, then your meadow will turn to woods by first turning to scrub brush. Scrub brush is a little difficult to deal with unless you have a brush hog which is a hardier machine than a mower.

If you want the meadow to stay meadow -- mow just a little.
posted by countrymod at 7:44 AM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

nthing the fact that this meadow is temporary unless you mow periodically. I have butternut trees and the squirrels seem to lose track of a lot of the nuts. I mows once a week and ALWAYS have tiny trees go under the blade. If I avoid a sprout for a season, the next year I have an inch-thick young tree I need to cut by hand.
posted by DU at 8:02 AM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

You don't necessarily need to fence in goats, you just need to try and make sure they dont run off. You could probably rent a few goats and stake them up and let them take care of the meadow a section at a time.

I am not a goat herder, nor do I have a very good idea of how goats work.
posted by BobbyDigital at 8:12 AM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

I am not a goat herder, nor do I have a very good idea of how goats work.

I'm pretty sure un-protected goats tied to a post are a gift to predators.

I would sincerely ask the forest service for a better explanation on why they want you to herbicide your meadow; whether it's a casual desire or, more importantly, something they may prosecute you for. They're your best source for "What I have to do vs. Why I'm told I should do."
posted by Hiker at 8:14 AM on June 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

I would think that an acre of dried meadow grasses would be good kindling for a forest fire to accidentally start.

Also a good place for unwanted critters to gain a foothold.

At least, I would mow it down a few times a year. If it was me, I would probably do it in waves, or leave a couple of stands of unmowed area for aesthetics.

I would definitely figure out which weeds are noxious (or just ugly) and kill them. A herbicide like Roundup only kills what it touches and biodegrades once it hits the ground. It is only a bad thing if you don't kill the plants on the first or second try. After a few years of almost killing some plants, but not quite, could well end up with Roundup resistant plants.
posted by gjc at 8:24 AM on June 21, 2010

Well applied herbicide, especially a specific for any invasive, noxious weeds does not really harm anything or cause runoff. If you are willing to do it you can walk around with a pump sprayer and hand apply roundup to want you don't want in your meadow, and what may be dangerous. If you are in an area with an invasive problems you will actually be improving things for yourself and the woods in general. You local county extension office can help you identify things, and if you don't have one your closest town and/or forest service can tell you what needs to go. Mowing will keep your meadow a meadow but it can spread seed of invasives and actually cause more problems than herbicide. Herbicide cause a lot of harm when broadcast sprayed and usually are overdosed when used commercially, which causes toxic residue and toxic runoff, careful hand spraying does not and is a huge time/labor saver. Grazing is good choice also but must be managed just as carefully as herbicide to avoid bad consequences like spreading invasives.

As for fire danger the worst is establishing a ladder for fire to climb. Low lying vegetation that is well below the bottom canopy of the tress does not pose a danger to most trees but a mix of grass, shrubs and young trees can establish a pathway that fire can climb to get into the crown of trees and turn a fairly benign, even helpful ground fire into a raging crown fire that kills trees, so avoid letting this condition get established. I would say that a well managed one acre plot in even dry grass is not a huge problem unmowed as long as that fits in with the native system around it(IE are there natural occurring meadows around?), is not a breeding ground for invasives, and does not allow a fuel path to either structures or tree crowns.
posted by bartonlong at 8:27 AM on June 21, 2010 [3 favorites]

You may be able to hire some goats a couple of times a year. An outfit like Rent-a-Ruminant will put up temporary fencing and keep an eye on the herd while they do their work.

Ditto what Forktine said about calling your local extension office. They'll likely have a useful perspective on the weed/noxious growth issue. Here's how to get the relevant contact info.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 8:30 AM on June 21, 2010

Also I'd ask the extension agent how the fire danger is -- or is projected to be for the season. My meadows are green and wet so really not a fire threat but other parts of the country have vastly different meadow climates.

The extension office is definitely a good resource for meadow management for where *you* live. You could also consider seeding the meadow with more of what you'd like as a part of a weed management plan. Extension can advise on that.

But generally I love my wild looking meadow. All sorts of wildlife come to frolic -- deer, turkeys, rabbits, woodchucks, foxes, fireflies, song birds -- and while there are some less desired parts of the ecosystem (deer ticks, coyotes, skunks), the meadow as a whole is something I enjoy everyday.
posted by countrymod at 9:16 AM on June 21, 2010

Where you live plays a big part in this. In southern California you would get fined, for example. I would call your local fire department and ask them. You might just need to mow during fire season.
posted by Vaike at 9:26 AM on June 21, 2010

bartonlong is right that a surface fire in a true grass meadow is unlikely to jump to the canopy of big trees. However, so much of this question is dependent on where you are and what might be actually growing in your meadow, as well as the state of your forest.

You should be killing noxious weeds in your meadow. In my state, invasive plants are big contributors to increased fire frequency and hotter fires. And as everyone says above, if you want it to stay meadow, you might need to mow it.

Getting some sort of designation will not change the management- wildfires don't care what something is called. Nor do animals or plants, and it is the natural variables that your land is affected by, shaping how and why you want to make particular management choices. It's too bad the forest service people weren't more helpful, but getting an ecologist or biologist to come out might be the best way to learn how to manage the systems you live in.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:04 AM on June 21, 2010

ask your county extension agent - they should have a better grasp of your local biome and know what kind of stuff you should or shouldn't be killing. maybe you can even get in on a seasonal controlled burn for your meadow.
posted by toodleydoodley at 1:38 PM on June 21, 2010