Prescribed pile burns planned on the Lakeside Ranger District

The Lakeside Ranger District of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests will be burning slash piles on March 30th, if conditions allow. The ignition area is on Forest Road 45/ County Road 3144 and Forest Road 44. Piles will be burned across roughly 20 acres of forest land.

Ignition is planned for one day only and possible smoke impact is anticipated along Forest Road 45/ County Road 3144, Forest Road 44, and lite impacts to the community of Vernon. In the interest of safety, forest visitors are reminded to obey all traffic signs and use caution when traveling in the vicinity of the prescribed fire burn units as firefighters and fire-related traffic may be in the area.

Prescribed burning provides many benefits and is essential to maintaining healthy forest ecosystems. It provides habitat diversity, recycles plant nutrients into the soil, and encourages new growth for a variety of plants used by wildlife and livestock.  Prescribed burning of forest ground fuels also reduces the threat of large-scale wildfire impacts to private lands. Crews will be on scene from ignition until there is no longer a threat of escape from the project boundaries. Prescribed fire operations are subject to cancelation due to unfavorable weather conditions or other unforeseen circumstance.

Information on air quality and active prescribed burns can be found on Arizona Department of Environmental Quality’s webpage: https://azdeq.gov/. Fire personnel will monitor the burn pit until it is completely out.

The public can obtain additional information by calling the Lakeside Ranger District at (928) 368-2100

Stay up to date on forest news at our website https://www.fs.usda.gov/asnf, on Twitter @A_SNFs and on facebook.com/apachesitgreavesnfs.