An annual program of burning some areas around Concord Municipal Airport will begin soon, designed to maintain the health of the Concord pine barrens and associated species including the state butterfly, the Karner blue.
Such burns have been taking place for more than a decade on a half-dozen parcels of land around the perimeter of the airport, within a conservation zone. The goal is to remove plants that don’t do well in fire but which otherwise outcompete native species in these sandy, acidic soils, as well as aid plants such as wild lupine that thrive after fires come through an area.
Prescribed burnings have long taken place for habitat restoration. In 2009, New Hampshire became the first state in New England to establish a Prescribed Fire Council, a government-sanctioned group that establishes best practices for these deliberate fires and helps identify areas that can benefit from them.
Such deliberate burning is increasingly use as a wildfire prevention mechanism, to reduce the amount of burnable material on forest floors before out-of-control fires start. U.S. Forest Service has begun to coordinate burning near built-up areas alongside the White Mountain National Forest as a preventive measure.
This year’s prescribed burn in Concord can occur any time between April 1 and May 15, depending on weather and atmospheric conditions.
