What is a mound fire? A mound fire is a fire built on a mound, 6 to 8 inches thick, of mineral soil. That's soil with little or no organic matter like leaves, grass, or conifer needles in it.
With so many people in the backcountry, campfires can damage vegetation underneath, sterilize the soil so nothing will grow for a long time, or leave ugly scars on rocks. By building a mound fire, you can have your fire, then after the ashes have cooled, remove the mound so no one knows you had a fire! A good way to leave no trace of your visit.
1. Make sure no fire bans are in effect for your area.
2. Find a big rock embedded in the ground, make a rock base out of "flat" rocks, or find exposed soil with less than 3 inches of plant remains. Make sure the area is away from trees and bushes- you do NOT want to start a forest fire.
3. Find some "mineral soil" along a creek or by an uprooted tree. Put enough soil on large garbage bag to make a flat-topped mound about 6 to 8 inches thick and about 18 inches or less in diameter. Lay the garbage bag with the soil on the chosen area and shape the mound.
4. Gather firewood by spreading your party out and picking up dead and downed wood from the ground. Make sure it's the size of your wrist or smaller. Gather the wood from various places so as not to remove all deaad wood in an area. Birds use dead branches on trees, so please leave dead branches on the trees. Build your fire within 1 inch of the edges of the mound. Enjoy!
5. Let the fire cool to white ash. Scatter the COLD ash and any unused wood over a large area. That way, no one will see that you had a fire.
6. Return the soil to where you found it.
7. If the garbage bag has no burn holes, you passed the mound fire test!
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Wilderness, LLC, P.O. Box 2842, Silverthorne, CO 80498-2842 |
Last updated March
4, 2002
© 2002 Maryann Gaug All Rights Reserved