Fire in the Smokies… but It’s Ok

How annual controlled burns in Cades Cove are good for the environment and the forest

“John, wake up. The woods on fire.”

It was a little after midnight and I quickly found myself – at the age of 13 or so – standing in the front yard with one of our two hoses, wetting down the yard and the tree and the house and the garage. My job was simple: to spray everything I could with water from the hose and then do it again.

The fire wasn’t close, but it wasn’t far away, either and it was moving our way. The firefighters were between us and the blaze. And they were cutting fire breaks and doing the things you try to do in stopping the blaze.

There was a road and probably 75 yards of grass and driveways and other homes between us and the edge of the forest. Had we been on the edge of the woods, I’m not sure my garden hose efforts would have amounted to much. But at that distance, maybe all that water would have stopped a floating leaf or another piece of debris from travelling the distance and sparking our house or the garage. But we never had to find out. The efforts of the firefighters and a nice steady rain stopped the fire before it got too close.

Fire in the mountains

Fire in the mountains – as we’ve learned – is dangerous. It can level homes and communities. It can destroy historic landmarks and large swaths of ancient forest. And as we know all too well, take innocent lives. When you’re in the mountains, and you see large amounts of white smoke drifting upward, it certainly gets your attention.

But, over the years, we’ve learned – well, I’ve learned, some people knew it all along – that not all fires in the mountains are bad. In fact, in the eons before we filled the mountains with go-kart tracks and mini-golf, large forest fires were part of a healthy ecosystem. Burning away the old and making way for the new.

So, if you happened to be near Cades Cove recently and saw the telltale signs of a fire, you were right not to panic. It wasn’t a danger to the park and surrounding communities. But rather, in fact, it was part of an effort to improve fire safety.

The deadly fires of 2016

We’d had forest fires before November of 2016. I can remember driving through Wears Valley in the early ’90s and seeing the mountain on fire in the distance. But I don’t know that many of us understood. It was a little bit like the hurricane that came to the mountains nearly eight years after the fire. We knew it could be bad and took it seriously. However we didn’t realize it could be THAT bad. Sadly, only in hindsight, did we understand we didn’t take it seriously enough.

The fires that year burned roughly 10,000 acres of national forest and about 6,000 acres of land outside the park boundaries. About 2,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed and 14 people died. There were a lot of hard lessons learned that day. Some of them involved things like interagency communications and evacuation procedures. Those were some of the major areas of focus in the immediate aftermath, anyway.

The fire started up atop the Chimney Tops trail, reportedly started by teens in a hard-to-reach section of the park. The region was in a drought and conditions were difficult. The National Park Service took some measure of efforts to contain the fire, keep it in a delineated zone. They dropped water from Chinook helicopters to slow the spread. But, they decided against sending teams of firefighters up into the high mountains.

The fire quickly spread past the containment boundary. As a result, on Nov. 28, driven by extremely high winds, that fire – and others caused by flaming debris and downed powerlines – raced down the mountains and into Gatlinburg and beyond. It was a hellish disaster.

Lessons learned

A lot of the focus was on the failure of officials to communicate with each other across jurisdictions. And the failure of infrastructure, hydrants went dry when pumping stations burned. There was also a failure to perform evacuations effectively, despite heroic efforts by first responders.

But one of the underdiscussed issues was a different failure all together. It was a failure to recognize that the park was essentially a tinderbox, ready to explode thanks to the drought conditions and decades of fire suppression.

Having stood myself – at least somewhat – in the path of a forest fire moving your way, I understand the very human instinct to put that thing out at all costs. Considering the conditions present in the mountains in 2016, it’s what the NPS should have done with the Chimney Tops fire.

Historically, fire is part of the life of a forest

“Recent research has emphasized the critical role that fire plays in the survival of many species, highlighting its importance in promoting biodiversity and maintaining healthy ecosystems,” the NPS writes. “Before European settlement, occasional fire was a natural part of most Appalachian ecosystems, and native plants and animals had adapted to this process. The forests featured a mix of old and young trees, with some areas being more open. Fire helped recycle nutrients from dead wood, which could then be used by growing plants and plant species dependent on fire disturbance to germinate. At least a dozen native plant and animal species have been identified as benefiting from fire in the Smokies.”

Smaller fires also burn away debris and the fuel for what could become mega fires. One of the reasons the 2016 fires were so bad is that because of the drought, and decades of accumulated debris on the forest floor, the Smokies might as well have been doused in lighter fluid.

Now, the question of what to do isn’t that obvious. With modern communities, the park service can’t just let fires burn and risk a repeat of 2016. They must be managed. And, in the wake of the 2016 fire and others, the NPS is adjusting its policies. They are now using a more scientific approach.

The NPS’s stance on suppressing forest fires

“The National Park Service adopted a stance of suppressing forest fires; however, extensive studies conducted in the southern Appalachians and elsewhere have transformed the understanding of fire’s significance. This shift in perspective now acknowledges fire as an essential component in sustaining the park’s ecological health. And also, the importance of implementing it as a management strategy,” the NPS explains. “The National Park Service has updated its fire management policy to include lightning-caused and prescribed fires in its resource management plan under favorable conditions, while combating arson and fires threatening human life or property with best management practices. The plan prioritizes safety and minimizes damage to park resources.”

Prescribed fire management

Not all of the current policies are due to the 2016 fire, however. In fact. The NPS has been using prescribed fires in Cades Cove since 2009. Originally the plan was three-year cycle. A third of the Cove – the grassy plains parts – would be burned each year. But, that wasn’t enough and now the prescribed burns are every two years. The east half of the Cove is burned on year and the west the next.

“This change simplifies the process and allows us to complete most burns in just one day. Additionally, it still maintains unburned habitat for wildlife to utilize area while the burned area restores itself over the following months,” the NPS says. “The burned landscape is short-lived, often resulting in a mosaic of burned and unburned areas, with new growth emerging just weeks after a burn. Without the use of prescribed fire, Cades Cove would soon transition to a forested landscape losing its ability to support certain species and its cultural significance.”

The prescribed burns accomplish two things. It supports species and ecosystems that benefit from fire. They reduce heavy fuel loads – dead wood and brush – that under the right conditions could lead to a catastrophic wildfire.

Cades Cove is not the only location

The NPS says, “Prescribed fires have been carried out at several locations within the park, including Cades Cove, to support species such as the red-cockaded woodpecker, purple fringeless orchid, mountain catchfly, whiteleaf sunflower, dwarf larkspur, goldenseal, Indian grass, and others. Scientific monitoring is conducted before and after each burn. This ensures that the fires achieve their intended results,” the park service says. “Efforts to reduce heavy fuel loads from dead wood and brush have been successful through prescribed fires conducted near the park boundary near Wears Valley, Tennessee, where a large number of beetle-killed pine trees are located adjacent to surrounding communities.”

Unfortunately, prescribed burns aren’t the answer everywhere. There are places in the park where conducting a prescribed burn is impractical or even unsafe. This is due to the remote location and its high position in the mountains.

Did you know the importance of prescribed burns in the mountains? Let us know what you think in the comments and on the socials.