One of the most important decisions in any prescribed fire program is when to burn. In the Southeast, and particularly in Florida, landowners and managers generally have two windows: the dormant season (roughly December through February) and the growing season (roughly April through July). Each has distinct ecological effects, practical advantages, and limitations.
If you are developing a burn plan for your Central Florida property, understanding the difference between these two approaches will help you make better decisions — and get better results.
A Brief History of Fire Timing in the Southeast
For most of the 20th century, prescribed burning in the Southeast was almost exclusively a dormant season activity. State forestry agencies and private landowners burned in winter because conditions were more predictable, humidity was lower, and the risk of escape was generally reduced.
But over the past 30 years, research has fundamentally shifted our understanding. Studies from Tall Timbers Research Station, the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center, and others have demonstrated that lightning-season fires — the fires that shaped these ecosystems for millennia — occurred primarily in late spring and early summer. Growing season burns produce different ecological outcomes than dormant season burns, and in many cases, those outcomes are closer to what the ecosystem actually needs.
That does not mean dormant season burns are wrong. It means the choice should be driven by your goals, not just by convention.
Dormant Season Burns: December Through February
How They Work
Dormant season burns take place when most vegetation is not actively growing. Grasses have gone brown, hardwood leaves have dropped (or in Florida’s case, are at their thinnest), and relative humidity tends to be lower. Fire behavior during dormant season burns is generally more predictable because fine fuel moisture content is more consistent.
Ecological Effects
- Fuel reduction. Dormant season burns are effective at reducing accumulated leaf litter, dead grass, and fine fuels. If your primary goal is to knock back fuel loads that have built up over several years, a winter burn accomplishes that.
- Hardwood topkill. Fire during the dormant season will topkill small hardwood stems, but because the trees’ energy reserves are stored in their root systems during dormancy, many will resprout aggressively in spring. This means dormant season burns are less effective at controlling hardwood encroachment over time.
- Less stress on wildlife. Most ground-nesting birds and many mammals are not in their breeding or nesting period during winter, reducing the risk of direct impacts on wildlife reproduction.
Practical Advantages
- Weather windows tend to be more frequent and longer lasting
- Lower ambient temperatures reduce heat stress on operators and equipment
- Smoke management is generally easier due to atmospheric conditions
- Properties with heavy fuel loads may be safer to burn in winter for the first reintroduction of fire
Limitations
- Hardwoods resprout vigorously after dormant season fire, often resulting in thicker regrowth
- Does not replicate the natural fire regime that shaped most Southeastern ecosystems
- Less effective at promoting warm-season grass and native wildflower response
Growing Season Burns: April Through July
How They Work
Growing season burns take place when vegetation is actively growing. Grasses are green, hardwoods are in full leaf, and humidity is often higher. Fire behavior can be more variable because fuel moisture content changes rapidly, and afternoon thunderstorms can shift conditions quickly.
Ecological Effects
- Superior hardwood control. This is the single biggest advantage of growing season fire. When hardwoods are actively growing, they have mobilized their energy reserves from roots into stems and leaves. Fire during this period kills those tissues and depletes the root reserves far more effectively than dormant season fire. Over successive growing season burns, hardwood encroachment is dramatically reduced.
- Native grass and forb promotion. Warm-season native grasses like wiregrass, bluestem, and Indiangrass respond vigorously to growing season fire. The burn removes dead thatch and competing vegetation right as these grasses are entering their rapid growth phase.
- Wildflower response. Many of Florida’s native wildflowers — species like blazing star, black-eyed Susan, and milkweed — show their strongest response after growing season burns. This has cascading benefits for pollinators and the broader food web.
- Improved wildlife habitat structure. The combination of reduced hardwood encroachment and increased herbaceous ground cover creates the open, diverse habitat structure that species like bobwhite quail, gopher tortoises, and wild turkey depend on.
Practical Challenges
- Burn windows can be shorter and less predictable due to afternoon convective activity
- Higher ambient temperatures create more demanding conditions for burn crews
- Smoke management requires more careful planning because atmospheric mixing can be less reliable
- There is direct overlap with ground-nesting bird and turkey nesting seasons, which requires thoughtful planning
Which Is Right for Your Property?
The answer depends on where your property is in its management trajectory and what your goals are.
Choose Dormant Season Burning When:
- Your property has not been burned in many years and you need a safer first burn with more predictable behavior. A dormant season burn, combined with mechanical preparation like forestry mulching, is often the best way to reintroduce fire to a long-unburned property.
- Your primary goal is fuel reduction around structures, along property boundaries, or in areas adjacent to roads and neighborhoods.
- You are managing primarily for deer and turkey and want to minimize disturbance during spring nesting and fawning seasons.
- You are on a tight schedule and need to take advantage of available weather windows without waiting for the right growing season conditions.
Choose Growing Season Burning When:
- Hardwood encroachment is your primary problem. If your pine flatwoods or sandhill are being overtaken by laurel oak, water oak, sweetgum, or other mesic hardwoods, growing season fire is far more effective at pushing them back.
- You are managing for bobwhite quail or longleaf pine savanna. Both of these management objectives benefit enormously from the ecological effects of growing season fire.
- Your property has been on a regular burn rotation and you are ready to shift toward a more ecologically optimal fire regime.
- You want to maximize native groundcover diversity. Growing season fire produces the best herbaceous response in Florida’s fire-adapted ecosystems.
The Best Approach: Use Both
Many experienced land managers in Central Florida use a combination of dormant and growing season burns, tailored to different parts of their property and different management phases. A common approach looks like this:
- Year 1: Mechanical preparation (forestry mulching to reduce fuel loads and create firebreaks), followed by a dormant season burn to safely reintroduce fire.
- Year 2-3: Transition to growing season burns on a 2-to-3-year rotation to begin controlling hardwood regrowth and promoting native groundcover.
- Ongoing: Alternate between growing season and dormant season burns depending on specific management goals, weather conditions, and wildlife management objectives for that year.
Preparing for Either Type of Burn
Regardless of which season you choose, preparation is the foundation of a successful burn. In many cases — particularly for properties in Central Florida that have been fire-suppressed for decades — mechanical preparation through forestry mulching is needed before the first burn can be safely conducted.
This includes creating firebreaks, reducing midstory fuel loads, and opening the canopy enough to allow fire to carry effectively. Without this groundwork, both dormant and growing season burns will be compromised.
Making the Decision
The best way to determine which burn timing is right for your property is to consult with a certified prescribed burn manager who knows your local conditions. They can assess your fuel loads, evaluate your management goals, and recommend a burn program that uses the right tool — dormant season fire, growing season fire, or both — at the right time.
At TreeShop, we help landowners prepare for both types of burns. Whether you need firebreaks mulched before a winter burn or comprehensive midstory reduction ahead of a spring growing season fire, the mechanical preparation work is essentially the same. The difference is in the timing, the planning, and the ecological outcomes you are working toward.
Fire is the most powerful land management tool available in the Southeast. Understanding when to use it is just as important as understanding how.