Year of Fire

Late summer brought a new chapter to the Lake James State Park burning program; the first “growing season” prescribed fire ever conducted at the park.

Here in the densely green and often humid western piedmont, getting fire to do much more than shuffle around a little bit before quickly extinguishing is a matter of timing and weather.

Why would natural resource managers want to burn during the summer? The answer is in the sap. As trees are growing sap flows freely up and down the stem providing nutrients. By heating the sap with fire, species of trees with thin bark layers are particularly vulnerable to mortality. Why would people want to kill trees in such a fashion? By removing non-adapted poplars, pines, sweet gums and maples through prescribed burning, fire-adapted types like oaks, hickories and certain pines are freed from competition that otherwise stifles their growth. Natural resource management goals at Lake James State Park include restoring parts of the area back to a historic habitat that was dominated by fire-adapted trees and plants. The most natural and efficient way to achieve that goal is to bring fire back into the natural cycle.

On Aug. 27, rangers and maintenance mechanics from South Mountains, Chimney Rock and Grandfather Mountain, along with the Division of Parks and Recreation seasonal burn crew and Natural Resources team met up to take advantage of a narrow window of opportunity to burn some acreage on the Catawba River Area in McDowell County.

The 86-acre tract on the south side of NC Hwy 126 was the site of a selective timber harvest in 2016 to remove remnants of and old white pine plantation and dense stands of poplar and maple that were limiting some remaining oaks and table mountain pine trees, as well as understory plant diversity.

The effects of the recent prescribed fire will become more apparent next spring, when native grasses sprout up in newly opened patches and young oaks and hickories find more room to grow. It marks the beginning of a five-year period of intense management for the site, during which annual burning will take place as conditions allow. It is hoped the result will be an improved habitat for many types of wildlife and plants that thrive in open grassy landscapes dotted with fire-adapted trees and shrubs.

Stay tuned.