Fire at Kings Mountain Park. Controlled burns planned
Hundreds of wooded acres will burn right at the edge of York County in a well-known area.
Kings Mountain National Military Park plans two controlled burns planned through the end of May. The national park has a Blacksburg address but is attached to Kings Mountain State Park just west of Clover. About three-quarters of the combined parks’ acreage is in York County, the rest in Cherokee County. The burn will only be at the military park.
Controlled burns are designed to reduce wildfire risk and restore native vegetation. Some trail and grounds access may be restricted during the burns. Smoke and visibility impacts to surrounding communities should be minimal, according a release from the national park.
A battlefield burn will cover 175 acres north of the national park main drive. That burn includes property around the visitor center. A Piedmont burn will cover 144 acres. It’s south of the main drive and shares a southern boundary with the state park.
The burns are part of a forest management effort. Exact times aren’t known, and depend on temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, and other variables. There isn’t a set start date.
“Weather and wind (will impact scheduling), but they’re hoping within the next couple of weeks,” said park ranger Katherine Lynn. “The days that we actually know we’ll do it, we’ll put something out.”
The national military park is a 4,000-acre property. The state park adds almost 7,000 more acres.
Lynn said there will be efforts to work around popular times when guests use the park.
“Most of the time they’ll try to do it during the week, but there may be times they have to schedule it on the weekends,” Lynn said.
Some areas farther from park amenities might have large fires at once. In other areas, burns will be smaller and last through the coming months.
“Those will definitely be smaller chunks,” Lynn said.
