Controlled Burns

Pearl Creek Farm: 8878 N Farm Road 75, Walnut Grove MO 65770

Summary Data | All Data

Date Location Unit Subunit Start Time End Time Condition Temperature Humidity Wind Speed Wind Direction CrewNotes
2025-03-01 Edmond A ABC2345 15:00:00 17:00:00 Hot 10 N Edmond, Brian I burned the N side of the driveway for the first time and did some cleanup in the front yard prairie and the woods S of there. The fire was hot where there was fuel. Otherwise, it didn't do a lot.
2025-02-28 Edmond C FGHI123 17:00:00 18:30:00 Hot 10 W Edmond, Brian After we got most of the hilltop done, I circled around to ignite the creek bottoms and NE corner of the property. I had refrained from doing this earlier so we could keep an eye on it. It burned hot and, again, burned some areas that have never been burned, including much of the north-facing hillside along Pearl Branch. The NE corner, which tends to be weedy with little leaf cover, burned fairly well, too.
2025-02-28 Edmond A ABC4567 18:30:00 19:30:00 Hot 5 W Edmond, Brian I did some clean-up burning from earlier this season. Unburned areas burned fairly easily. I got fire to run through some areas that had been resistant in the past. I'm hopeful most of the winter annuals have been killed. I'll go back out when it warms up to see what else I can kill out there. Even some areas in the front yard prairie burned up. It's obvious where we burned earlier this year and where I burned today. Today's burn is much more thorough.
2025-02-28 Edmond C DEFGHI34567 13:30:00 17:00:00 Hot 20 WSW Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian The humidity was low and the wind was high. We started at the eastern edge of the prairie / pasture along Limpus. At first, we thought there wasn't enough to burn on Limpus so we weren't very careful. A small spot got away from us for a bit and we burned up about a garage-sized patch of ground over on their side of the fence. After that, we were more careful and didn't have any major issues. But, we had to go very slowly around the perimeter of the property. Once we got down to the South Glade area and worked our way around the rabbitat (without burning it), much of that area burned better than it ever had. Some of those areas had never been burned before because of the carpeting of cheat grass. Likewise, a fire burned into the draw at H6, something that hasn't happened before. Curiously, some of the actual open vegetation didn't burn which seems to be more and more common in the last several years. There is a lot of cheat grass in here but it seems like the conditions and the overlying dry vegetation would have facilitated a better burn. We then went down to the brushpiles that can be seen from the house and ignited the valley there. We raked leaves away from the dogwoods to spare them but let everything else burn. Again, this was a very thorough burn.
2025-02-09 Edmond A ABC1234567 14:30:00 15:30:00 Good 10 NE Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Ligon, Day Despite the high humidity and the fuel being damp close to the ground, we got a good, even burn over the prairie reconstruction. Burning in the woods was a bit patchier but still mostly successful. We''ll do a cleanup burn later if conditions are good. The breeze really helped move the fire along and also away from the house which was ideal for obvious reasons.
2025-02-09 Edmond C FG5 15:30:00 16:00:00 Poor 5 NE Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Ligon, Day I thought we could get a strong burn on top of the hill because the humidity was even lower. However, the wind had died down some and was more variable in direction. Also, I think the fuel here isn't as good as in the front yard. This area is better burned with low humidity and a strong SW breeze. We'll try again if conditions allow.
2024-02-18 Edmond C CDEFGHI34567 13:30:00 16:00:00 Good 50 (49 to 50) 27 (27 to 26) 10 W Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian The humidity was low for this burn but the wind was so variable that it was difficult to get a consistent burn. Keeping the fire line clear on the east side of the burn unit was challenging as the fire kept spotting over. We also did some cleanup burning in the woods from an incomplete burn from 15 Feb 2024.
2024-02-15 Edmond B DEFGH123 15:00:00 16:00:00 Hot 55 (55 to 55) 46 (47 to 45) NE Edmond, Brian As in years past, the open areas with lots of fuel burned very cleanly. Once the fire reached into the forest, there was less fuel in some areas (as has been the case in the past) and more patchy burning. As I write this, a few lines are burning their way towards the creek but I suspect we'll need to try again in the next few days when the humidity is much lower.
2024-02-15 Edmond B ABC12 14:00:00 15:00:00 Hot 55 (54 to 55) 49 (51 to 47) NE Edmond, Brian This burned much hotter than I anticipated because of the high humidity. The patch of aster burned very hot and the leaves Julian and I moved to the walnut trees next to the shed did the trick perfectly.
2023-02-11 Edmond AC BC567, GHI123 13:30:00 15:30:00 Medium 50 (48 to 51) 23 (23 to 23) 5 SW Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian We tried to burn some unburned areas from last weekend. Much didn't do much but a few areas burned out.
2023-02-05 Edmond C CDEFGHI34567 13:30:00 16:00:00 Good 59 (59 to 59) 33 (33 to 32) W Blackwell, Jason; Blaisdell, Beth; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Ligon, Day; Thompson, Denise; Van Someren, Tom This was a decent burn in most areas but some patches remain unburned. This area might need some cleanup later. The area in GHI12 was not burned at all.
2023-02-05 Edmond A ABCD34567 10:30:00 13:00:00 Good 54 (48 to 59) 45 (56 to 33) W Blackwell, Jason; Blaisdell, Beth; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Ligon, Day; Van Someren, Tom This was a surprisingly good burn given the fairly wet fuel conditions. Some patches went unburned but most areas got at least a surface fire going through.
2022-01-29 Edmond B ABC123 11:30:00 13:00:00 Hot 52 (49 to 54) 28 (32 to 24) 10 S Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian I wanted to start this burn early around the workshop before the wind got too high and the humidity too low. It ended up escaping across the road and roaring across the area between the two buildings. We were prepared with water to cool down the structures to prevent an accident.
2022-01-29 Edmond B DEFGH123 13:30:00 14:30:00 Hot 55 (54 to 56) 23 (24 to 22) 10 S Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Thomas, Brighton; Thomas, Dana; Thomas, Eli; Thomas, Justin This unit burned very cleanly and thoroughly throughout the woods and most of the open areas. The only spots that didn't burn were dominated by brome and other cool-season grasses, mainly underneath walnut trees.
2022-01-29 Edmond C DEFGHI1234567 15:00:00 16:30:00 Hot 55 (56 to 54) 24 (22 to 25) 15 S Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Thomas, Brighton; Thomas, Dana; Thomas, Eli; Thomas, Justin This was a pretty clean and thorough burn. There are still areas underneath girdled trees that aren't growing fuel and some areas in the open didn't burn, most likely because of a lack of adequate fuel. I decided to just leave these as refugia rather than trying to clean them up later.
2021-02-05 Edmond C EF567 13:00:00 14:00:00 Medium 49 (48 to 49) 35 (37 to 33) 10 S Edmond, Brian Lit a few spot burns to see if I could get some areas cleaned up. I got some areas to burn but there just wasn't enough fuel to carry the fire.
2021-01-23 Edmond ABC ABCDEFGHI1234567 12:30:00 18:00:00 Hot 38 (39 to 37) 34 (29 to 39) 15 SE Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian Many areas that haven''t burned well in the past burned very well today. Several of the flare ups were very hot as the humidity was pretty low. The areas where I spread leaves last fall and winter to assist with fuel distribution worked very well and those areas burned completely. Still, some areas with Smooth Brome and other winter annuals were untouched.
2020-02-02 Edmond AC ABC4567, DE4567, GHI4567 Good 62 (64 to 60) 37 (34 to 39) Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian Cleaned up patches of fuel that didn't burn during January attempts.
2020-01-07 Gehlbach Unknown 10:00:00 16:00:00 Hot 45 (43 to 46) 44 (51 to 37) SW Edmond, Brian; Gehlbach, Virgil; Van Someren, Tom; Others We essentially burned the entirety of Virgil's farm, approximately 200 acres. The Indian grass prairie to the east of the shed and extending a small distance west of the shed burned very hot even early in the morning. The savannah and woodlands burned less intensely but many areas still carried a fire fairly well. Virgil arranged for a neighbor (Gene) to bring over an ATV and water tank and three volunteer firefighters with two trucks to assist.
2020-01-05 Edmond AB AB2, BCD4 14:00:00 16:00:00 Good 52 (54 to 50) 39 (38 to 39) Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian We cleaned up some unburned areas from yesterday. Several places that didn't catch yesterday burned easily today. A snag about 40 feet from the house caught on fire and burned all the way to the crown. After attempting to extinguish the flames with a garden hose, I called the Walnut Grove fire department who sprayed the snag and eventually cut it down and soaked it.
2020-01-04 Limpus Unknown 13:00:00 14:30:00 Good 42 (41 to 42) 48 (49 to 47) Bartlett, Renee; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Gehlbach, Virgil; Limpus, Shane; Limpus, Shawn; Van Someren, Tom This unit was burned as part of the upper pasture on our place. We started on the east side of the unit and worked up the south side. In reality, the two units didn't burn very well together and we had to relight in several places due to the light and variable wind (that wouldn't push the fire).
2020-01-04 Edmond ABC ABC234, EFGHI34567 10:00:00 16:00:00 Medium 38 (35 to 40) 51 (59 to 43) 5 NW, W, SW Bartlett, Renee; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Gehlbach, Virgil; Limpus, Shane; Limpus, Shawn; Van Someren, Tom The humidity for this day was reasonable for a good burn but the wind was variable, unpredictable, and too light to facilitate a good spreading of fire. Ironically, leaves, even in forested areas, burned better than some of the restored grasslands. The result was a very patchy burn and little attention to some of the northern burn units which will have to be cleaned up later.
2019-02-02 Edmond ABC ABCDEFGHI1234567 10:00:00 17:00:00 Medium 56 (54 to 58) 74 (75 to 72) Bartlett, Renee; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Van Someren, Tom I have no detailed notes on this burn but I did note it was somewhat patchy. We burned part or all of the farm during this day. I believe I tried some clean up burning later.
2018-01-28 Edmond BC EFGH12, DE4567 Good 49 (55 to 43) 37 (25 to 49) Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian Cleaned up burning EFGH12, DE4567.
2018-01-27 Edmond ABC ABC34, BC567, AB1, D4567 Good 46 (51 to 41) 47 (50 to 43) Edmond, Brian Cleaned up burning ABC34, BC567, AB1, D4567. Humidity and wind was good enough to get more fuel to burn than last weekend.
2018-01-21 Limpus Unknown 15:00:00 16:30:00 Good 68 (69 to 66) 62 (59 to 65) 15 S Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Ligon, Day; Limpus, Shane; Limpus, Shawn We didn't have good lines for this pasture, so we struggled with keeping the north side of the pasture contained, but we managed. The burn was good and thorough.
2018-01-21 Edmond C EFGHI34567 12:00:00 15:00:00 Good 70 (70 to 69) 57 (55 to 59) 20 S Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Ligon, Day The humidity was high but we got a fairly good burn on the restored prairie here due to the dry conditions for the fuel.
2018-01-06 Edmond B ABCDEFGH12 14:00:00 17:00:00 Good 34 (36 to 32) 40 (37 to 43) 12 NE Acharya, Sreekanth; Edmond, Brian; Van Someren, Tom The subunit (ABC2) behind the workshop burned fairly well but didn't burn the leaf litter completely due to residual moisture. We managed to black out the north fence line. Much of the rest of the forest leaf litter and some open areas didn''t burn well and will need some cleanup work later this spring.
2018-01-06 Edmond A ABC234 11:00:00 14:00:00 Medium 33 (30 to 36) 40 (43 to 37) 12 SE Acharya, Sreekanth; Edmond, Brian; Orfin, Michael; Van Someren, Tom Some snow and ice were still lingering in the vegetation. This resulted in some patchy and incomplete burning. A lot of the leafy underlayer didn't burn through. This will need some cleanup later in the spring.
2017-03-12 Edmond A ABC234567 13:00:00 14:30:00 Hot 47 (46 to 48) 42 (42 to 42) E, SE Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Joseph; Edmond, Julian Although the humidity wasn't as low as I would like, the front prairie burned very well and thoroughly for the upper 3/4 of it (the lower 1/4 or so is still partially shaded and "behind" the rest in maturity). Much of the wooded sections of B567 is overrun with chickweed and wouldn't burn at all.
2017-03-12 Edmond C CDEFGHI34567 14:30:00 17:00:00 Good 45 (48 to 42) 48 (42 to 53) E, SE Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Joseph; Edmond, Julian Much of this burned fairly well, especially with the wind gusts. It definitely wasn't dry enough here to get a thorough burn and much of the area, especially with a layer of brome, didn't burn at all. Most of the woods wouldn't burn, either, unless there was a thick layer of oak leaves to carry the fire.
2017-02-05 Edmond B DEFGH123 14:00:00 16:00:00 Good 62 (61 to 62) 45 (46 to 44) Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian This was a pretty good burn in most places. There was too much winter greenery in some places, and the fire didn't burn far into most of the woods.
2016-02-21 Edmond A ABC34567 13:30:00 16:00:00 Good 60 (63 to 57) 40 (38 to 41) 15 NW Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Ligon, Day Wind was steady NW, but varied a bit more W and somewhat more N. There were some stronger gusts. Most of the wooded portion of this unit didn't burn thoroughly and could stand for a very low humidity burn. The restored prairie burned very cleanly and quickly.
2016-02-15 Edmond C DEFGHI34567 13:00:00 15:30:00 Good 55 (54 to 55) 43 (47 to 38) 15 SW Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian; Ligon, Day Winds were 10-15 mph from the S, SSW, SW, and occasionally gusting from the N or NW. Humidity was lower than predicted and the burn continued into wooded areas with adequate oak leaf fuel. Lots of areas wouldn't carry the fire. The large mulberry in H3 that forms three main trunks burned from the inside out. A fire line was created on Limpus just E of the fence. Twitchell's pasture didn't have much fuel so we worked the fire from his side of the fence without a serious problem.
2015-03-22 Ligon Unknown 14:00:00 18:00:00 Hot 69 (69 to 69) 44 (42 to 45) 5 W Edmond, Brian; Ligon, Day Burned front (south) pastures and roadside.
2015-01-10 Edmond C DEFGHI34567 14:00:00 18:00:00 Good 37 (37 to 37) 46 (46 to 45) 10 S Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian Despite the cold temperatures, the humidity was very low and the fire burned well. Most places that were skipped didn't have the fuel to carry the fire in any case. A stronger wind might have helped some.
2014-03-23 Ligon Unknown 15:30:00 17:30:00 Hot 46 (45 to 46) 38 (38 to 37) 15 NE, NW, N Edmond, Brian; Ligon, Day If wind was gusting or fuel close to ground, burn was good and hot. Otherwise, it was too green close to the ground to sustain a fire during much of the day. Burned pasture west of driveway.
2014-03-22 Edmond B ABC23 15:30:00 16:00:00 Hot 53 (53 to 53) 42 (42 to 41) 15 NE, NW, N Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian Wind variable and unpredictable, including gusts and direction shifts.
2014-03-22 Edmond B AB12, C1 13:00:00 15:00:00 Hot 51 (50 to 51) 47 (47 to 47) 15 NE, NW, N Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Joseph Wind was somewhat unpredictable, with some gusts and direction shifts.
2014-02-23 Edmond B DEF1 11:00:00 12:00:00 Hot 42 (41 to 42) 46 (47 to 45) 10 N Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian Mop-up burn for the one started on 17 Feb 2014. Good coverage with some burns through green winter annuals.
2014-02-23 Edmond A ABC34567 12:00:00 15:00:00 Hot 44 (43 to 44) 43 (43 to 42) 10 N Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian Front yard burned up almost completely. We back-burned extensively between SW1 and SW2. If we hadn't the headfire would have almost certainly jumped the break and spread into the neighbor's pasture. Much of the woods burned as well, including the section of fence on the S side of C7.
2014-02-17 Edmond B CDE23 13:00:00 16:00:00 Hot 54 (53 to 54) 52 (53 to 51) 15 NW Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Joseph; Edmond, Julian After fire was started, some wind shifts occurred forcing us to extinguish the fire before it burned through CDE1.
2014-01-19 Edmond C DE456, GHI234 14:30:00 17:30:00 Good 54 (53 to 54) 42 (44 to 40) SW Edmond, Brian Some brome and leftover fuel from last time burned. Where there was fuel, the fire burned fairly hot, especially with the SW wind gusts.
2013-12-30 Edmond C EFGHI567 13:30:00 15:30:00 Medium 31 (30 to 31) 59 (59 to 59) 5 SW Edmond, Brian; Ligon, Day Some fuels burned well, but much of the less desirable fuel didn't burn at all. Leaves in the bottoms near Pearl Branch wouldn't sustain a burn, possibly because of frost that didn't melt because of cold temperatures. The wind was 5mph maximum but only in brief and short-lived gusts. A sustained wind would have helped the burn. Some areas will probably burn later with warmer and drier conditions and a south wind.
2013-01-26 Twitchel Unknown 12:00:00 15:30:00 Hot 51 (50 to 52) (50) 51 (52 to 49) (52) 10 S Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Twitchel, Dennis Much of the pasture was grazed too short for burning but patches of Bermuda grass burned hot. As the temperature rose and the humidity dropped, the fire was able to spread between patches of good fuel.
2013-01-26 Edmond C EFGHI4567 15:30:00 17:00:00 Hot 56 (56 to 56) (56) 42 (40 to 43) (43) 10 S Edmond, Brian Burned patches of grass and leaves that didn't burn last weekend. Many areas were more eager to burn this time.
2013-01-21 Edmond C DEFGHI4567 14:00:00 16:00:00 Good 33 (32 to 33) (32) 54 (54 to 54) (54) 5 N Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Joseph Most places with fuel burned fairly well. Unfortunately, much of the open areas do not support grass and there isn't much to burn.
2013-01-06 Edmond A ABC34 14:00:00 15:30:00 Medium 39 (39 to 39) (39) 64 (65 to 63) (54) 5 N Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Joseph Good burn but patchy. I knocked down woody stems where there was little fuel and covered some green areas with oak leaves. The N wind spread across these areas fairly well but I still needed to relight several patches of grass.
2012-11-24 Edmond B ABCDE12 12:00:00 15:00:00 Medium 38 (37 to 39) (53) 59 (62 to 55) (51) Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Joseph; Edmond, Julian Burned everything in Unit B that would burn, including wooded portions N of Pearl Branch, about 2/3 of the open areas of ABCD but none of EFGH1 since there was little fuel.
2012-03-04 Edmond C HI123 16:00:00 20:00:00 Hot 63 (63 to 63) (60) 37 (37 to 36) (30) 30 W Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Julian Section of woods burned well. Also burned the S fencerow (along Twitchell).
2012-02-20 Edmond C EFGHI34567 12:00:00 13:30:00 Hot 53 (52 to 53) (55) 57 (57 to 56) (50) 20 S Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Joseph South wind helped spread the fire quickly. We started on the south side of this unit and filled in with more fire where necessary.
2012-01-02 Edmond A ABC4567 15:00:00 17:00:00 Good 37 (37 to 37) (37) 32 (32 to 32) (32) 15 N Edmond, Brian Cleaned up some areas from 18 Dec 2011 burn and burned as much of the wooded portion of unit A as I could.
2011-12-18 Edmond A ABC34 12:00:00 15:00:00 Medium 47 (45 to 48) (45) 79 (82 to 76) (82) Edmond, Brian; Johnson, Joe; Ligon, Day Many areas with minimal fuel did not carry the fire so we burned as many patches as we could.
2011-06-09 Ligon Unknown Medium 81 (80 to 82) 73 (74 to 71) Edmond, Brian; Ligon, Day Burned back pastures. Found an American Toad in the burned out area but it seemed to be unaffected.
2010-10-10 Ligon Unknown Medium 70 (77 to 62) 63 (45 to 80) Edmond, Brian; Ligon, Day Burned about an acre of old field which had previously been sprayed to kill fescue.
2010-10-03 Edmond C EFGHI67 Poor 53 (56 to 50) 58 (49 to 66) Edmond, Brian; Ligon, Day Attempted to burn parts of upper pastures and walnut grove but most areas were still too green.
2010-09-19 Edmond B ABCD12 13:00:00 16:00:00 Good 86 (87 to 84) 59 (53 to 65) Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Joseph; Ligon, Day; Oetting, Kristi; Parmele, Jeff Burned dead vegetation.
2010-03-06 Edmond C DE4567 Hot 57 (59 to 55) 35 (32 to 37) Edmond, Brian; Ligon, Day Burned mostly woods today.
2010-02-28 Edmond C EFGHI567, GHI4, I3, HI12 Hot 39 (40 to 38) 26 (21 to 31) Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Joseph Burned upper pastures down to woods in EFGHI567, GI4, and I3. Burned patches in HI12.
2010-02-21 Edmond B DEF1, DE2 Good 40 (47 to 33) 93 (90 to 96) Edmond, Brian This was a side note in my notebook so the date is correct within a day or two and I do not have notes on the complete crew or time period.
2009-08-31 Edmond A ABC34 Good 64 (67 to 60) 64 (49 to 78) Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Joseph Burned beside the driveway and around the patch of native sedge near the septic tank access. We found three dead garter snakes (THSI) in the detritus, two possibly young of the year.
2009-02-16 Edmond A ABC34 Good 39 (40 to 38) 35 (30 to 39) Edmond, Brian Burned woods due N of house, front yard, woods due S of house.
2009-01-02 Edmond B ABC123 Good 48 (49 to 46) 56 (44 to 68) Edmond, Brian Burned woods and grass from workshop west to the road on both sides of Sandstone Spring all the way up to NW.
2008-09-21 Edmond A AB34 Good 66 (68 to 64) 83 (81 to 84) Bowe, Michelle; Edmond, Alex; Edmond, Brian; Edmond, Joseph Burned front yard prairie with no noted casualties.

A total of 64 rows are displayed.