Onslow, Carteret officials conduct controlled burns

While residents in Onslow and Carteret counties may have glimpsed large columns of smoke Tuesday, they weren’t a sign of disaster, but disaster prevention.

According to Onslow County forestry officials, Tuesday marked the completion of a 500-acre controlled burn between Belgrade-Swansboro Road and the White Oak River. The burn started Monday, burning for about four hours in the afternoon, then began again Tuesday between 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Onslow County Forest Ranger Ricky Adkins said the purpose of the burn was twofold: to reduce fuel available for a larger, destructive forest fire, and to enhance the habitat for wild turkeys.

The burn, Adkins said, was the last one the county would do this year, working with optimal weather conditions to keep the situation controlled.

In Carteret County, county forestry officials collaborated with the U.S. Forest Service and the North Carolina Forest Service to burn about 1,000 acres of forest north of N.C. 58 and west of N.C. 24.

A county ranger with the North Carolina Forest Service, Donald Meadows, said the weather was perfect for the burn, a rarity at this time of year.

“It’s very hard to get a southerly wind during the late winter, early spring,” Meadows said. “The southwest wind is what we’ve been needing to burn this track because of the amount of residents in this area.”

Meadows said that county residents in the neighborhoods nearest to the burn location were alerted to plans in advance.

The Carteret County burn also had dual purposes, he said: to reduce the hazard of wildfires and to benefit regional wildlife and the long-leaf pine ecosystem.

“The biggest thing with this type of burn is it’s a way for us to put fire into these areas in a controlled environment to prevent any type of catastrophic wildfire,” he said.

Burning wrapped up around 4 p.m., he said, although light residual burning continued for some time afterward.

The burn was a joint operation, Meadows said, because the state owns a tract of land within the burn zone, and the region also borders the Croatan National Forest on several sides.

“We conducted the burn jointly to reduce some of the environmental impacts of some of the heavy equipment we use,” Meadows said. “It saves money, saves time doing the burn. It all works out good.”