Controlled burn season is now underway in southeastern North Carolina.
Fire specialists with The Nature Conservancy started the season last week with a 30-acre burn at its Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County. A release from the conservancy states it hopes to burn 2,500 acres in Brunswick, Bladen and Pender counties though the end of March.
Conservancy staff also assists partners in burns on non-conservancy lands, according to the release, which quotes fire specialist Angie Carl with the conservancy’s coastal plain office in Wilmington.
“We’ve got a great burn crew,” Carl said in the release. “We’re ready to go and hope the weather gives us a fantastic year.
“Burning is great for the plants and animals. It also benefits people—reducing the likelihood of wildfires.”
Much of the coastal plain contains plants and animals that need regular fire to thrive, the conservancy says. Where fire was once common across the area, typically caused by lightning strikes, the last century has emphasized fire suppression, according to the release.
“Without routine fire, plants such as longleaf pine, Venus flytraps and native orchids—and the animals that live in the forest—declined. Fuel load also built up in the forest, leading to hard-to-control wildfires that threatened nearby communities.”
The Nature Conservancy uses fire as part of restoration work, as do many partners including the military, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, the N.C. Forest Service, the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation, and Brunswick County’s Orton Plantation.
Last year, the conservancy burned 2,000 acres on its preserves and assisted with another 9,000 on partner lands in the southeast coastal plain.
This year, the conservancy will extend its controlled burn window to include May through August, thanks to a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Federation. In past years, burn crews have only worked from January through March.
The public can follow the progress of the 2014 prescribed fire season via this map.
