HARRISBURG, Pa., March 5, 2012 - The Department of Military and Veterans
Affairs' Forestry Department has begun its spring prescribed burns to
reduce the risk of wildfire at Fort Indiantown Gap, Lebanon County.
Weather permitting, the burns will be held between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.
A prescribed burn is a commonly used forestry management technique
that reduces the amount of combustible material naturally existing in
the wilderness. It is performed only when conditions such as humidity,
wind and temperature are ideal for managing fires. Prescribed burns are
not conducted unless all required weather conditions are met.
"Prescribed burns help reduce the potential of major wildfires on Fort Indiantown Gap property," said DMVA Forest Program Manager Shannon Henry. "More than 250 prescribed burns have occurred at Fort Indiantown Gap
in the past decade and they are always conducted by properly trained
personnel with an approved plan and coordinated with the appropriate
authorities."
Prescribed burns will be conducted on approximately 2,500 acres at Fort Indiantown Gap through May.
Fort Indiantown Gap, headquarters to
the DMVA and Pennsylvania National Guard, offers more than 17,000 acres
and 140 training areas and facilities for year-round training. It
balances one of the region's most ecologically diverse areas with a
military mission that annually supports 19,000 Pennsylvania National
Guard personnel and more than 130,000 other states' Guard, military, law
enforcement, and civilian personnel each year. It is the only
live-fire, maneuver military training facility in Pennsylvania.
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