Brookhaven National Laboratory hold controlled burn in pine barrens to prevent future wildfires
Pine Barrens #PineBarrens
Jul 07, 2022, 12:11amUpdated 1d ago
By: News 12 Staff
The Brookhaven National Laboratory held a controlled burn in the pine barrens Wednesday.
A total of 23 acres of land was burned in order to protect neighboring areas from wildfires.
“We’re doing this for fuel reduction to protect the adjacent community from wildfires – and for ecological restoration benefits – because the pine barrens need fire, so we burn it on our terms or nature burns it on its terms,” says Kathy Schwager, firefighter program manager at Brookhaven Lab.
Schwager says monitoring where the wind is blowing and the weather conditions is how they control Mother Nature with minimal impact to nearby neighborhoods. If the winds suddenly change, experts would be able to put the fire immediately.
Minimal rain and wind conditions were ideal for the controlled burn.
Experts say it is best to burn around 10,000 acres a year, but resources are not available to do that. They have burned over 350 acres so far this years.