A 175-Acre Prescribed Burn on the Smokies' Wears Valley Boundary, 2021

The Wear Cove prescribed burn from the air, March 9, 2021. NPS.

The burn

In March 2021, fire staff of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Appalachian-Piedmont-Coastal Zone burned 175 acres along a half-mile of the park boundary in Wears Valley, Tennessee. The goals:

• reduce flammable brush where the park borders homes;
• keep an open woodland for drought-tolerant trees such as oak and pine.

Chief Ranger Lisa Hendy praised the planning and execution, part of an ongoing effort to help neighbors create Firewise space between their homes and the park — and said the burn also strengthened ties among the partner firefighting agencies.

How it was done

• Preparation: crews spent days clearing brush and leaf litter along the boundary and Indian Camp Branch as control lines. The unit was bounded by Wear Cove Gap Road, Indian Camp Branch, the Little River and the park boundary along Roundtop Trail.
• Protection: a 3,000-foot hose lay guarded homes at the top of the ridge and along the boundary.
• Ignition: a small test burn confirmed fire behavior; then the fire burned slowly downhill toward Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area.
• Behavior: flame lengths stayed within the plan as the low-intensity fire backed down the slope over six hours to the control lines at the bottom. Smoke was visible across Wears Valley, as expected.
• Follow-up: crews stayed overnight and for several days to check lines and monitor the fire.

Staff monitor the prescribed fire. NPS.

Who helped

Crews came from the Cherokee National Forest, the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Cherokee, the Townsend, Pittman Center and Waldens Creek volunteer fire departments, The Nature Conservancy, AmeriCorps, and Great Smoky Mountains, Congaree and Chickamauga-Chattanooga parks.

Sources

Based on "Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Appalachian-Piedmont-Coastal Zone Fire Management Staff Complete Wears Valley Boundary Prescribed Fire," National Park Service Fire and Aviation Management; a work of the United States government in the public domain. A photograph credited to an individual is not reproduced.