Do you worry about erosion when you burn this early in the season?
When I have burned early in the season, it is amazing how much it affects the soil temperature.
My dormant tallgrass prairie keeps the sun from directly warming the ground and is quite efficient at holding a blanket of cold air at the surface when the ground temperature is cooler than the spring air temperature. Whereas the mostly bare, blackened ground heats up rapidly in directly sunlight or even under warm breezes. One year my brother went out to work at the farm, and he said there were 20 turkeys and 14 deer in the black areas as the bugs and new growth were busting out. No game was visible elsewhere. (Although visibility is obviously worse outside the burn areas.)
I believe that in my burn patches, some forbs and cool-season grasses have come up 3-4 weeks earlier compared to the areas still covered with the previous year's grass.
