Fort plans controlled burn today

Sierra Vista Herald ^ | Tanja M. Linton, Fort Huachuca Public Affairs Office

[SandRat]

FORT HUACHUCA — Fort Huachuca, in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Service and other local cooperative fire agencies, will conduct a prescribed burn on Wednesday, March 7, along Whitside and Irwin to support military training, reduce the risk of wildfires and maintain the ecological integrity of the fire-adapted ecosystems dependent on recurring fire that benefits forest health.

Ignitions should start between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m., and will probably last an hour and a half to two hours.

Prescribed fire activities are expected to continue throughout the year when weather permits.

The natural fire regime — or the rate fire would naturally occur — in southern Arizona is three to seven years in most upper Sonoran Desert ecosystems.

Before fires were suppressed here around the turn of the century, areas such as Fort Huachuca had fire burn across them every three to seven years.

Certain training areas are burned more often than others on Fort Huachuca due to the need to keep firing range operations open throughout the summer without a chance of sparking a fire.

— Tanja M. Linton, Fort Huachuca spokesperson

[redfreedom]

I seen the aftermath of a controlled burn once conducted by the National Park Service. They burnt down the power line poles that supplied power to one of their remote water wells that could have been used to supply water in case the fire got out of control. Quite humorous, as the power lines were very visible, a good 10 feet above the tallest vegetation they burned.