The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection recently announced plans to start a prescribed burn process at six locations across Connecticut this spring. One of the slated areas is Mansfield Hollow State Park, located near the University of Connecticut’s Storrs campus.
“Controlled burning is a valuable tool for maintaining healthy habitats and diverse vegetation,” said the DEEP announcement. “For example, it helps maintain grassland and shrubland habitat for species that are declining in Connecticut due to a loss of farmland and early successional habitat, helps maintain pitch pine sand plain forest (one of the state’s most imperiled ecosystems), and can assist with forestry objectives such as oak regeneration.”
DEEP will burn approximately one acre of Mansfield Hollow to enhance the grassland habitat in the space. The state park area is managed by DEEP in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who use the forestry and Mansfield Hollow Lake for recreational and wildlife management studies.
The exact dates of the controlled burns will depend on weather conditions, the announcement said. The DEEP Forest Fire Control Office, in conjunction with state authorities and the National Weather Service, publishes a daily fire danger warning level to guide citizens and prevent forest fires on the web and on a large sign outside its headquarters on Route 66 in Marlborough.
“Connecticut traditionally experiences high forest fire danger in the Spring from mid-March through May,” stated the Forest Fire Control Office webpage. “In an average year approximately 500 acres of Connecticut woodland are burned by forest fires.”
The DEEP Forestry Division is conducting the prescribed burns with assistance from fire-trained workers in the organization’s wildlife, state parks and support services divisions. These areas are set to be closed to the public with signage posted, the announcement said.
Five additional locations will also receive prescribed burns, including 10 acres of the James Goodwin State Forest in nearby Hampton, 26 acres of the Pachaug State Forest in Voluntown, 10 acres of the Quinebaug River Wildlife Management Area in Plainfield, one acre of the Belding Wildlife Management Area in Vernon and 70 acres of the Suffield Wildlife Management Area, in the north-central Connecticut town of Suffield.
DEEP said that these burns help sustain wild plant species, maintain favorable habitats for endangered animal species found in these forests and provide wildfire suppression training for DEEP staff and local firefighters.
Controlled burning of forestry and vegetation is a long-established practice originated by American Indian populations, who used the technique to make land more habitable and cultivatable. DEEP noted that Connecticut natives burned to promote the growth of sweet acorns and other nut and berry-producing trees.
“We try to replicate what Native Americans would have done on the land, they kept land open for different reasons,” said DEEP Fire Control Officer Rich Schenk to WTNH Channel 8 after its first prescribed burn in 2024 at Machimoodus State Park in East Haddam.
People may notice smoke from the planned areas on the days of the burns. When DEEP and local officials from the town of Mansfield decide on a date to begin the prescribed burn process at Mansfield Hollow State Park, weather permitting, it will be announced to the public.
For more information about CT DEEP’s forest fire prevention and controlled burning initiatives, visit its Forestry Division webpage at portal.ct.gov/deep/forestry/forest-fire.