Cades Cove prescribed burn taking place in the GSMNP

Conditions are right so a prescribed burn - one of many - is taking place today in the Cades Cove area of the Great Smoky Mountains national park. Between today and May 1st a total of 7 parcels of land in Cades Cove will be burned totally 300 acres.

The national park service uses controlled fires and a rotated mowing schedule to keep the fields and meadows in Cades Cove clear of new growths of trees so that its appearance is more like that what the White settlers of the 1800's tuned the Cove into.

Prescribed fires are also used in the Great Smoky Mountains national park to protect the abundant biodiversity by simulating the effect natural wildfires have to allow greater competition between plants.

Prescribed burns in the Great Smoky Mountains national park also used to reduce dead brush and other natural fuels which can allow what should be a controllable wildfire to get out of hand.

The prescribed burn today should not significantly hamper your experience if you are visiting Cades Cove today or on any other day that the burns in the Cove are being executed.

Last of the hiking trails closed for prescribed burn in GSMNP Cades Cove/Abrams Creek section reopened

The April prescribed burn in the Cades Cove and Abrams Creek Section of the Great Smoky Mountains National park has kept hikers and campers from enjoying some of the GSMNP backcountry campsites and hiking trails for weeks.

Today the last hiking trail that remained closed from the burn - the Beard Cane Trail in the Abrams section has reopened as well as backcountry campsites #3 and #11 which have both been closed for weeks.

The prescribed burn in Cades Cove will help promote the growth of native yellow pine as well as reduce the ferocity of a wild fire in the area by reducing the potential fuel to feed the fire.

The picture above shows the immediate after effects of the prescribed burn on Cooper Road Trail near the Beard Cane junction.

Gregory Ride Burn in the Smoky Mountains National Park

Another prescribed burn near Cades Cove Tennessee is scheduled for this Friday April 20th in the Gregory ridge area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to help allow yellow pine reclaim where maples and other hardwoods are dominating what was historically a yellow pine forest.

The prescribed burn of 850 acres will close the Gregory Ridge Hiking Trail from Forge Creek Road trailhead to the intersection with the Gregory Bald Trail as well as backcountry Campsite 12. Bower Creek, Forge Creek, and a small fireline across Gregory Ridge will form the boundaries of this burn south of Cades Cove in Blount County, Tennessee.

21 firefighters will be used for containment of the controlled burn and both ground and aerial ignition methods will be used to start the fire. Since it will take several days for the firefighters and park service personnel to be sure that there are no hazards hot spots or dead snags left in the burn area, the area will be closed to hikers for a few days.

Drivers and nearby residents will be able to see smoke in Townsend, Happy Valley, the Foothills Parkway West, and Walland.

Unlike the prescribed burn to take place in Cades Cove used to keep fields form being reclaimed by forest, this burn is meant to open up part of the canopy in the forest which is now crowding out the original dominating species of yellow pine.

In the past naturally occurring forest fires opened the canopy and allowed this species to thrive here but since man intervened and suppressed fires which "cleansed" the forest of more evasive species, the delicate ecological balance was upset. Southern pine beetles that feed on yellow pines further decreased the yellow pine population.

Burn Baby Burn - so says the National Park Service in the Smoky Mountains.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park was expecting to conduct a prescribed burn in the Cataloochee Valley North Carolina last Saturday but due to the weather in the Smokies creating an unsafe condition, the burn has been rescheduled for today February 28th.

Last Saturday in Cataloochee Valley both the humidity was too low and the forecasted winds would have been too high to have allowed a safe burn. The idea of a safe prescribed burn is to have the condition as such that the fire would do its job but not get out of control and spread throughout the Smoky Mountains National park.

Again I suggest that you stay away from the area and let the national park service do their job.