National Fire Plan Success Story
Prescribed Burning Pocosin
Croatan National Forest, North Carolina
National Fire Plan - Fuels Reduction
2008
The Croatan National Forest is located on the coast of North Carolina. Wildland Urban Interface and extensive amounts of pocosin, a highly volatile fuel type, surrounds the Croatan. If ignited in severe burning conditions, heavy fuel loadings including pocosin can contribute to an uncontrollable wildfire. The goal of the 25,000 acre per year burn program is to treat high hazard natural fuel areas to reduce the threat of fire starts and to facilitate suppression of fires that occur. The burn program is the single most critical tool in sustaining fire-dependent ecosystems containing threatened, endangered, and sensitive plant and animal species such as the red cockaded woodpecker, Venus fly trap, and pitcher plant. The pictures below are of a pocosin burned in the late dormant season containing an isolated ridge.
Low pocosin ignition by helicopter.
Low pocosin fuel burning.
Pitcher plants four months after burn.
Healthy sand ridge one year after burn.
Contact: James H. Cherry, District Fire Management Officer; phone: (252) 638-5628 x 4002 or email: jcherry@fs.fed.us .