Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will conduct its first ever controlled fire



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EMPIRE, MI – For the first time, the National Parks Service will conduct numerous controlled burns at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

The prescribed burns, which could occur this week, will occur in two areas of Platte River National District, Benzie County, between Esch and Peterson Roads and west of M-22.

The two areas targeted by the prescribed burn are the Peterson Road Burning Unit, which covers approximately 512 acres, and the Brass Lake Burning Unit, which covers 371 acres.

As a result, the campground in the backcountry of the white pines and some of the park's smaller roads and trails will be closed to visitors during the active burning season.

According to the NPS, fire is a tool intended to restore habitat in the forest ecosystems of the park.

The area to be burned contains unique fire-dependent plant communities known as dry northern forest and woody nodules.

Northern dry forests are generally dominated by a mix of hardwoods and jack pines or red pines. Woody nodules are low-lying areas between postglacial ridges that harbor wooded wetlands and a variety of wildflowers and other herbaceous plants.

Both are important for the diversity of the Sleeping Bear Dunes ecosystem, according to the NPS.

"By retaining these remnants of high quality dry northern forests and wooded hoes through prescribed burns, visitors to the National Lakeshore will be able to continue to live in an ecosystem that represents a wild and bygone element of Michigan's natural history," he said. we read in an NPS press release.

"In addition, combustion under controlled conditions will reduce fuel loads and uncontrolled fire risks in the future."

Burning will only be done in a specific set of weather and fuel conditions, which will be monitored by NPS staff.

The safety and dispersion of the smoke are the main concerns, and the direction and speed of the wind will be monitored before ignition to minimize smoke generation in developed areas and roads from the place of the smoke. Distant fire.

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