Conclusions and Outlook

1
Prescribed Burning and the Development of a Smoke
Management Plan (SMP) in Georgia
Karsten Baumann1, Sangil Lee2, Mark Clements3,
Polly Gustafson4 1School of Earth and Atmospheric
Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Atlanta, GA 2School of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology,
Atlanta, GA 3Southeast Regional Office,
Installation Management Agency, U.S. Army, Fort
McPherson, GA 4Environmental Management
Divisio0n, U.S. Army Infantry Center, Fort
Benning, GA
Prescribed Burning Activities in GA Prescribed
burning (PB) is a common land management practice
in GA with 24.4 million acres of forested land.
Of the 17.6 million acres privately owned forests
alone, more than 1 million acres are burnt
annually. Most forested areas are burnt in
winter and spring. Agricultural burns gain
importance in summer. Highest burn intensities
occur on military installations where up to 5,000
acres can be burnt on a single day. The three
largest military installations are Forts Stewart,
Benning, and Gordon, which burn 50,000, 30,000
and 12,000 acres every year, respectively. Here,
PB emissions were determined at three different
locations and evaluated in the context of
long-term air quality measurements and the
development of a Smoke Management Plan (SMP) for
GA.
VOC Profile of Emissions from Flaming and
Smoldering
Combustion efficiency (CE) clearly different
Flaming 91-92 vs. Smolder 81-82 ?C
excess C concentration Ward and Hao, 1992

• VOC concentrations are orders of 10 to 1000
  higher near the source.
• VOC are generally higher during flaming than
  smoldering but similar in profile.
• Emissions of certain alkenes, aromatics and
  biogenics are higher than others.
• These are particularly efficient precursors for
  atmospheric O3 and SOA formation.
• Average VOC profile valid for characterizing
  prescribed burning (PB) source.
• New PB source profile suitable for VOC source
  apportionment at receptor sites.
• See below

Benefits Georgias economy is heavily supported
by agriculture and forestry. Both vocations
utilize prescribed burning practices to cultivate
agriculture and maintain healthy forests. The
State of Georgia regulates open burning to assure
air quality, minimize fire danger and protect
wildlife species such as bob-white quail, eastern
wild turkey, white-tail deer, and red-cockaded
woodpecker that are protected by the Endangered
Species Act (ESA) or designated by state
initiatives for wildlife management. Many native
songbirds and plants also depend on a natural
fire ecology. Fort Benning fire statistics also
show that prescribed burning reduces the
occurrence and size of unwanted wild fires, and
ultimately protects human lives and property.
Prescribed Burning is therefore considered in the
U.S. governments Healthy Forests Restoration Act
as an important measure to reduce fuel loads and
the risk of catastrophic wild fires across the
Nation.
SOA
The Conflict With Air Quality The general trend
in annual PM2.5 at the States regulatory
monitoring network is a uniform decrease across
all 26 sites since 1999. This trend seems
climatologically driven by precipitation, the
main sink for atmospheric PM. The annual
state-wide totals for the years 1999 thru 2003
were 40.9, 41.7, 42.9, 50.3, and 58.2 inches,
compared to a 30-year normal (1961-1990) of 50.8
inches. All sites outside metro Atlanta
benefited from the last two wet years and
attained the annual NAAQS of 15 mg m-3. While
the metro Atlanta sites experience the highest
concentrations, the coastal sites remain the
cleanest, apparently benefiting from diluting
effects associated with the land-sea breeze
circulation.
PM2.5 Mass and Composition at OLC near Fort
Benning in 2003
Others includes K, Na, Cl-, and LOA
includes acetate, formate and oxalate. Acres
burnt are prescribed burns conducted on the Fort
during each given period. The OM/OC ratios
derived from mass closure provide some measure of
the degree of POC oxygenation showing a trend
toward higher values later in the season. The
less uncertain OC/EC indicates relative change in
SOA contribution, which was low early in the
season, when photo-chemical activity was low (see
max-O3). More SOA from regional sources in aged
air masses contributed to total POM at the end,
while more primary OPOC contributed earlier in
the season.

• Conclusions and Outlook
• Most monitoring sites in GA exceed the annual
  NAAQS for PM2.5, coastal sites benefit from
  land-sea breeze circulation.
• Regional trend in decreasing PM2.5 levels
  correlates with increasing annual total
  precipitation state-wide.
• SOA is indicated indirectly to contribute
  significantly to observed ambient PM2.5 levels in
  summer months regionally.
• SOA seems to compensate deeper BL mixing height
  in summer by secondary formation during
  atmospheric transport.
• PM2.5 mass and its organics fraction increase
  with increasing atmospheric photochemical
  activity indicated by O3.
• Prescribed burning (PB) emissions contain high
  levels of VOC precursors with substantial
  potential for SOA formation.
• PB emissions influence the local PM2.5 mass and
  its organics fraction measured at OLC near Fort
  Benning.
• The PB influence on PM2,5 mass is highest at
  night and early mornings, reaching extreme values
  during Oct-Nov 2001.
• Exclusion of the five exceedance days would yield
  attainment of the annual NAAQS for PM2.5 in 2001.
• Stable nocturnal stratification identified
  indirectly by max/min T difference and wind speed
  influence PM2.5 levels most.
• Continued emissions from smoldering fires
  accumulate in shallow nocturnal BL layers and
  burden local air quality.
• Forecasting of nocturnal BL height difficult due
  to complex, detailed land coverage and topography
  features.
• PCA will be applied to a statistically robust,
  extended data set to determine the most important
  forecast parameter.

Acknowledgement Part of this work was funded by
the EPA/DOD Region 4 Pollution Prevention
Partnership Small Grants Program and the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers via Engineering
Environment, Inc. subcontract NC03-05SUB01. The
FAQS is directed by Dr. Michael Chang from EAS at
Georgia Tech. OLC members from Columbus State
University and LMB Personnel from Forts Benning
and Gordon assisted with the VOC sampling and
provided burn data. The VOC analysis was
performed by Dr. Don Blake at UC Irvine. Daniel
Chan from the Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC)
provided state-wide burn data and forecast
products.