Controlled burn at Oak Mountain State Park
From: Official Web site of Alabama State Parks
You have seen lots of smoke floating over Shelby County today.
It is because a Wildland Fire Plan exercise is happening at Oak Mountain State Park.
According to a news release, the planned burn is the state of an ecological project designed to help restore the health of the longleaf pine forest.
An associate professor of Biology from Birmingham Southern College says this area of forest has not been burned in many decades, and the health of the longleaf pine has been in decline.
The prescribed fire is within a 60-120 acre zone.
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Reader Reactions
I probably wouldn’t call it a controlled burn until it is over. Either way, I’m glad to see the powers-that-be thinking progressively and proactively in terms of managing resources. I also applaud their decision to attempt to manage the deer herd within the park. Too often, govt-owned land is simply left alone, in hope of achieving some mythical status thought to exist before we settled, leading to further degradation of the resource, diseased flora and fauna, or catastrophic wildfires.
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