It’s springtime on Long Island, which means the return of prescribed fire season. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation plans burns in four heavily wooded areas in Suffolk County alone. These burns are required by law and are not subject to Long Island’s seasonal burn ban.
Prescribed fires are a critical part of forest management… one that can help prevent uncontrolled fires from occurring. Longtime residents may remember devastating wildfires that occurred in the East End’s Pine Barrens – scorching thousands of acres, injuring firefighters, spurring evacuations, and damaging homes in the area.
Controlled burns also aid in pest management. How? By reducing the number of pathogen-carrying species like the forest-dwelling ticks that bedevil so much of Long Island’s East End.
