Photos: Prescribed burn in the Pine Bush
Plumes of smoke come from the burned brush remains of the prescribed burn in the Pine Bush in Guilderland on Tuesday afternoon. Wildland fires once occurred in the Pine Bush nearly every year and are needed to maintain the ecosystem with a pitch-pine canopy and native grasses and plants, like the blue lupine.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Lonely flame: A tongue of fire licks a log left on ashen ground, showing what was left of the prescribed burn on Tuesday afternoon in the Pine Bush off of Willow Street and Tera Court in Guilderland.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Plumes of smoke come from the burned brush remains of the prescribed burn in the Pine Bush in Guilderland on Tuesday afternoon. Wildland fires once occurred in the Pine Bush nearly every year and are needed to maintain the ecosystem with a pitch-pine canopy and native grasses and plants, like the blue lupine, below.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Light the fire: Wildland firefighters use drip torches to light a pile of logs along with brush during Tuesday afternoon’s prescribed burn in the Pine Bush off Willow Street in Guilderland. Laws passed by the state legislature in the early 1990s allow for fires to simulate the ones that formerly occurred before widespread fire suppression. This maintains the native habitat.
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Flames rip from a pile of logs along a trail in the Pine Bush on Tuesday afternoon’s prescribed burn. Trained wildland firefighters set the fires on days when weather conditions keep the flames under control. The ecosystem of the pitch pine barrens depends on fires, which used to occur yearly, to preserve plants like the blue lupine, essential for the survival of endangered Karner blue butterflies and other species.