Park Plans Controlled Burns in Cades Cove

Park Plans Controlled Burns in Cades Cove

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park fire management officials plan to conduct a series of controlled burns in Cades Cove. Weather permitting, burn operations could begin Monday, November 4, and may continue intermittently through mid-November. Managers plan to burn several fields totaling approximately 400 acres.

The selected fields will be burned as part of a cost-effective strategy to prevent the open fields from being reclaimed by forest. These seasonal, controlled burns help perpetuate native herbaceous species that provide high quality cover and foraging opportunities for a diversity of wildlife including deer, turkeys, and ground nesting birds.

“By conducting controlled burns, we are able to maintain the openness of the cove to preserve and maintain its historic character while also reducing non-native species,” said Fire Management Specialist Dave Loveland.

The Park contracts to mow about 1,000 acres of fields that are clearly visible from the Cades Cove Loop Road annually. Other fields that are less visible from the loop road, totaling around 1,500 acres, are kept open by burning or mowing on a three year rotation.

The loop road and historic structures will remain open to visitor use, but brief delays and temporary closures of side roads and trails may occur to ensure public safety during burn operations. Park staff will be present to answer questions during operations at overlooks and parking areas.

Visitors should expect to see fire activity and smoke during controlled burn operations. Fire managers ask that motorists reduce speed in work zones, but refrain from stopping in the roadways. If smoke is present, roll your windows up and turn on your headlights.

For more information on the use of prescribed burns in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, click here.


Jeff
Hiking in the Smokies

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BRP Controlled Burn in Haw Creek Area Today

BRP Controlled Burn in Haw Creek Area Today

Friday, March 18, 2011

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Blue Ridge Parkway managers plan to conduct a controlled burn totaling approximately 80 acres within a tract of forest near the Haw Creek Overlook (Milepost 380) in Asheville, North Carolina. This operation will occur today, and possibly tomorrow. In order to reduce the amount of smoke produced, managers plan to burn the area over a span of 1 to 2 days.

The goals of the "Haw Creek Burn" are to use fire to reduce forest fuel accumulations and to restore a healthy and diverse ecosystem. Fire managers plan to use a series of low-intensity controlled burns over a number of years to restore the composition and open structure of the oak and pine forests that occur on upper slopes and ridges within the site. These plant communities, which need occasional fires to regenerate, are important to wildlife and overall ecosystem health, and they are in decline throughout the Southern Appalachian region. This series of burns on the Parkway will reduce the number of fire-sensitive trees and shrubs while increasing populations of oak and yellow pines, and increasing the cover and diversity of native grasses and wildflowers.

This is the first prescribed fire the Blue Ridge Parkway has attempted since completing a Fire Management Plan in 2005. Fire professionsals from Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cumberland Gap National Historic Park, and the NPS Southeast Regional Office have helped write the plan, prepare the site, and will manage the fire. Parkway firefighters from North Carolina and Virginia will also be on the scene.

The Parkway motor road may be closed during firing operations. The Mountains-to-Sea trail will be closed during and after burn operations as firefighters extinguish hot spots along the trail.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com

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Controlled burns in Cades Cove this week

Controlled burns in Cades Cove this week

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

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National Park Service workers in the Smokies are planning a series of controlled burns in Cades Cove this week.

Fires will be set to keep open fields and meadows that would otherwise be reclaimed by the forest.

Great Smoky Mountains officials says fires are planned Tuesday through Friday, weather conditions permitting.

The park contracts to have roughly 950 acres near Cades Cove Loop Road mowed twice a year. Another 1,500 acres of open land, less visible from the road, is burned or mowed on a three-year rotation.

Park Fire Management Officer Mark Taylor says tourists will notice smoke in the valley, but it shouldn't detract from their visit. The loop road will remain open.

** You should also note that the Cades Cove Loop Road is tentatively scheduled to be closed for two days during the week of November 29 for hemlock woolly adelgid control. Spray operations are weather dependent, so actual closure dates will not be determined until a few days prior to spraying. Closure dates will be posted once they are available.


Jeff

** Check out our Day Hikers Store for maps and books related to hiking, history and travel in the Great Smoky Mountains, Southern Appalachians, Shenandoah and the Blue Ridge Parkway - many of them offered at discounts.

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Study supports the use of controlled burns

Study supports the use of controlled burns

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

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A Duke University study that reconstructs thousands of years of fire history in the southern Appalachians supports the use of prescribed fire, or controlled burns, as a tool to reduce the risk of wildfires, restore and maintain forest health and protect rare ecological communities in the region's forests.

Professor Norman Christensen Jr. and his team said their study, the first of its kind, involved radiocarbon analysis of 82 soil charcoal samples dating from 1977 to more than 4,000 years ago. The samples were used to reconstruct the fire history of a 25-acre site in western North Carolina's Nantahala National Forest.

"These are the first hard data showing that fires have occurred relatively frequently over much of the last 4,000 years and have played an important role in the health, composition and structure of southern Appalachian forest ecosystems," Christensen said.

Analysis of the charcoal samples demonstrated fires became more frequent about 1,000 years ago. That coincides with the appearance of Mississippian Tradition Indians, who used fire to clear underbrush and improve habitat for hunting, Christensen said. Fires became less frequent at the site about 250 years ago with the arrival of European settlers, whose preferred tools for clearing land were the axe and saw, rather than the use of fire.

The relative absence of fire over the past 250 years has altered forest composition and structure significantly, Christensen said.

Aside from historic and scientific interest, knowing more about presettlement fire regimes may help forest managers understand the likely responses of species to the increased use of prescribed fire for understory fuel management, Christensen said.

You can read the full story by clicking here. The complete study appears in the journal Ecology.


Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com Detailed information on trails in the Smoky Mountains; includes trail descriptions, key features, pictures, video, maps, elevation profiles, news, hiking gear store, and more.

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