This is not a cloud bank over the mountain - it is smoke from a controlled burn. The U.S. Forest Service is conducting numerous such burns in our area this spring. This one was on Potts Mountain. They are burning thousands of acres.
The smoke rolled into Alleghany from this fire, but the weekend before, the smoke from a burn on Caldwell Mountain nearly ran half of Botetourt out of the county, the smoke was so thick.
These kinds of prescribed burns are weather-dominated, as in, it must be not too dry, wet, or windy for the burn to happen.
After many years of fire exclusion, an ecosystem that needs periodic fire becomes unhealthy. Trees are stressed by overcrowding; fire-dependent species disappear; and flammable fuels build up and become hazardous. The right fire at the right place at the right time:
- Reduces hazardous fuels, protecting human communities from extreme fires;
- Minimizes the spread of pest insects and disease;
- Removes unwanted species that threaten species native to an ecosystem;
- Provides forage for game;
- Improves habitat for threatened and endangered species;
- Recycles nutrients back to the soil; and
- Promotes the growth of trees, wildflowers, and other plants;
I think controlled burning is appropriate. I don't like it when the smoke rolls in my direction, though, because it sets off my asthma.
Just one of those things to live with on occasion.
Love this post. We have controlled burns more often these days, to prevent the awful burns (like the one that decimated Bandelier National Monument). I've read lots on fire science, smokejumpers, etc..... have you ever read Young Men and Fire (by Norman Maclean)? He wrote A River Runs Through It. Anyhow...interesting and sad.
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