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National Fire Plan Success Story

Big Thicket National Preserve Completes 693 Acres of Prescribed Burning in the Wildland Urban Interface
Big Thicket National Preserve, Texas
National Fire Plan - Fuels Reduction
2010

Prescribed fire burning ground fuels underneath pine forest.
The Wildwood Prescribed Burn reduced hazardous fuels along the park boundary. NPS Photo.

Area blackened by prescribed fire near (undamaged) homes.
The completion of the Wildwood Prescribed Burn in January 2010, was strategic to the continued maintenance of BITH’s wildland urban interface. NPS Photo.

On January 27, 2010, Big Thicket National Preserve (BITH) completed ignition of the 693-acre Wildwood Prescribed Burn in the 705-acre Hickory Creek Savannah Unit. Interagency firefighters from the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and The Nature Conservancy supported the National Park Service during the critical phases of the operation. The unit was burned in five separate blocks, within a three week time period. Surrounded by pine plantations, scattered rural housing, and the community of Wildwood, the Wildwood Prescribed Burn was an identified project in the 2009 Community Wildfire Protection Plan for Tyler County Texas.

Over the past 10 years, multiple wildfires have threatened or burned into the Hickory Creek Unit. Increased fuel loading from two hurricanes within a three year time frame, has required further hazardous fuel reduction. In addition to prescribed fire, BITH Fire Management has used herbicide and mechanical treatments to reduce hazardous fuels along the wildland urban interface boundary. The completion of the Wildwood Prescribed Burn in January 2010 was strategic to the continued maintenance of BITH’s wildland urban interface.

The Big Thicket National Preserve would like to extend thanks to its partners and staff who helped accomplish this important fuels reduction goal. Utilizing resources from local cooperators was essential to capturing limited winter burn windows. Without their assistance, the park would not have been able to complete this project.

Contact: Iola Hallock, Lead Fire Effects Monitor, (409) 951-6854.