Thursday, January 22, 2015

Forest Fire!


OK, it’s not quite as exciting as an unplanned forest fire, but Jonathan Dickinson State Park had a prescribed burn in a section of the park (luckily not at our campground). A large portion of the park is full of saw palmettos and slash pines. The underbrush burns up over the years so they burn each portion of the park every 3-5 years. The burn was started along the road. Firemen were in several places watching the fire to make sure it didn’t go out of control.

It was pretty smoky, but at least we were driving. Several people we spoke to road their bikes through the area. They mentioned trying to hold their breath while pedaling quickly.

 Flames! Besides the smell of smoke, we could hear the fire crackling.

We could see the smoke seven miles away.

Firemen checking along the edges a few hours later were making sure the fire wasn’t going to spread.

The plants come back quickly. This is what the palmettos look like just 3 months after a fire.


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