Chickasaw National Recreation Area planned to begin a series of prescribed fires starting on December 6, 2010, but National Park Service fire management professionals have decided to postpone the burns until weather conditions become more favorable. The decision to postpone burning was made due to current weather forecasts and to avoid the possibility of excess smoke entering or lingering in local communities.
The prescribed fires are now likely to occur in January 2011, once weather conditions are favorable. The fires will burn the thinned eastern red cedar cut during the summer and fall. Although native to Oklahoma, eastern red cedar is extremely invasive. The tree species creates a wildfire hazard, displaces other species from the natural ecosystem, impairs local air quality by producing allergens, and contributes to the general decline of the local water table. Prescribed fire is a tool used to simulate the periodic natural fires that limited the spread of eastern red cedars before fire suppression became common practice.
For more information about the upcoming burns, contact Chief of Resource Management Steve Burrough, 580-622-7261.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
