We had the opportunity to burn out at Pinnacle Mountain State Park today. What a cool burn! Pinnacle is the northeastern extent of the Ouachita Mountain ridge systems across western Arkansas. I've been hiking there for years and every time thought, "Man, I wish they'd burn this!" The state park system in Arkansas has been slowly ramping up their prescribed fire program over the last couple years and this burn alone was several years in the making. Pinnacle Mtn. State Park is just west of Little Rock, so the burn would be a very public and political event and smoke management was definitely be an issue.For all its complexity, the burn went off almost without a hitch. Over 600 acres of prescribed fire were implemented in about 4 hours. I had the opportunity to hike up to the top of the mountain with 7 other guys, then light our way down in a starburst pattern to mitigate the intensity of uphill runs. There is a trail that surrounds the base of the mountain and once all the interior igniters were clear of the unit the base was lit. It was a very cool burn and one that I'm glad I got to be a part of.
An added bonus was that we received very positive feedback from the public about the burn. Park rangers report that since the burn visitors have commented on how pleased they were that the park was burned. They appreciate the fuel reduction in their community and are interested to see the herbaceous response this spring. I am too!
