Prescribed Fire Research

Fire was an active part of the natural processes in and across the Conasauga River watershed for thousands of years. Fire is one of those natural processes that is needed to sustain the health of an ecosystem and to restore vegetation communities that were adversely affected by fire suppression. The photo to the right is a prescribed fire that was set to research the ecosystem response to burning in a pine and oak community. Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, USFS Southern Research Station, has been working with the Cherokee and Chattahoochee National Forests in the Conasauga River watershed on forest management issues regarding thinning and prescribed burning. Research such as this can help guide forest managers to prescribe treatments that sustain a healthy forest and healthy watersheds. See the US Forest Service web site regarding fire, forest management and people.

Ecosystem response to burning in a pine and oak community will be researched from this prescribed fire.