2007

National Park Service firefighters from Horseshoe Bend NMP, Great Smoky Mountains NP, Gulf Islands NS, and Natchez Trace Parkway met in Alabama at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park to implement a prescribed burn in rare mountain long leaf pine habitat. Long leaf pine once occupied over 92 million acres in the Southeaster United States. Today, it is believed that perhaps only 3 million acres remain. Most long leaf pine forests are found on the coastal plain. Remnant isolated patches of mountain long leaf pine can be found in the mountains of Alabama and Georgia. Horseshoe Bend National Military Park is the site of one of these remnant populations. As such, National Park Service staff and interested researchers from the University of Alabama have teamed up in an effort to return fire to this rare ecosystem.

On January 30th, the Great Smoky Mountains Fire Use Module coordinated the implementation of the second prescribed fire to be conducted in this unique habitat. The burn encompassed 158 acres of the park lands and is the first of a series of burns planned for Horseshoe bend this year. Years of fire suppression and fire exclusion have created fuel loading conditions which not only threaten park infrastructure and neighbors but also the health and survival of this unique forest habitat. Prescribed burning will reduce heavy accumulations of dead and down matter, open the under-story, and provide a receptive seed bed for pine regeneration.

Horseshoe Bend National Military Park
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