Controlled burns

[B the Hiker]

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is conducting three controlled burns in state forests this year.
https://www.middletownpress.com/new...-controlled-burns-at-Machimoodus-17017650.php

"Prescribed (controlled) burns are an important forest management practice, said the DEEP, which plans and administers a number of controlled burns annually for various purposes, including maintaining grassland and shrub land habitat for species in decline in Connecticut from a loss of farmland and early successional habitat. “Fire can also assist in maintaining pitch pine sand plain forest (which is one of the most imperiled ecosystems in the state), and to assist with forestry objectives such as oak regeneration, which is disturbance-dependent. Controlled burning is a valuable tool for natural resource managers to maintain habitat and vegetative diversity,” the news release said."

I remember from an NHPR Outside/In podcast that at least one controlled burn had been conducted in the Whites a few years back, I think mostly for research. Other than that, I haven't heard of any.

Does anyone if any controlled burns are being conducted in the Whites?

Brian

 

[peakbagger]

The WMNF does controlled burns almost every year. They maintain wildlife clearings in various areas. I see them posted usually in the spring during the week.

 

[sierra]

A few years ago, they did a controlled burn across from 4th Iron camp off route 302. They later put up signs with the date of the burn, so you could follow the re-generation of the forest, it's quite interesting. When I lived in CA and climbed in Yosemite, I would visit the old burn sites to watch the new growth.

 

[peakbagger]

There is also a non profit that burns the Ossipee Pine Barrens.

 

[B the Hiker]

A few years ago, they did a controlled burn across from 4th Iron camp off route 302. They later put up signs with the date of the burn, so you could follow the re-generation of the forest, it's quite interesting. When I lived in CA and climbed in Yosemite, I would visit the old burn sites to watch the new growth.

In Connecticut, I live not far from one of the parks where they are planning a burn. Kind of excited about hiking the place before the burn, and then after, to see the difference.

 

[Amicus]

The Ossipee Pine Barrens are New Hampshire's "last intact pitch pine–scrub oak woodland natural community, a globally rare forest type." The pitch pines need fire to reproduce and The Nature Conservancy does a good job with its controlled burns. They have a few miles of hiking trails through the Barrens so observation is easy.