Pulp Road Wildfire
15,642 acres burned = 15,642 acres revitalized
June 2023
Green Swamp Preserve, Brunswick County, North Carolina
Pulp Road Wildfire
On June 14, 2023, a controlled burn escaped containment into the Green Swamp Preserve . The fire was named the Pulp Road Wildfire, and efforts by the North Carolina Forest Service (NCFS) were implemented to control the fire. With public and firefighter safety in mind and a clock ticking down until a significant wind shift, the decision was made by NCFS to burn out the entire preserve to contain the wildfire. Quick containment of the fire was necessary as a forecasted wind shift was 48 hours away, which could have pushed the fire toward homes and other private property. As a result, towering flames tore across the vegetation, and thick clouds of smoke moved across the surrounding area. The smoke was so intense that it sparked thunderstorms nearby! Five days later, after the smoke cleared, large swaths of charred stems were revealed, and many assumed that the orchids, pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, and myriad other species that call the Green Swamp Preserve home had been lost…
Yet, upon closer examination, a completely different story was unfolding!
Refuge from the Flames
“Islands of green” that did not burn during the wildfire. Photo courtesy of SouthWings
Instead of a charred wasteland as far as the eye can see, the fire burned some areas and left some areas untouched. These areas didn’t burn for one of two reasons: either they were too wet (it is called the Green Swamp, after all), or they had been burned recently in a series of controlled burns over the last year. The wildfire was unable to spread into areas that had burned recently because all of the available fuel (dead leaves and sticks) had already been consumed in the controlled burns. These “islands of green” amidst a "sea of black" serve as critical refuges for wildlife during fires.
The wildfire did not carry into a recently burned unit due to a lack of available fuel. Click and drag the image to look around.
Post Wildfire Recovery
Wiregrass sprouting a week after the burn.
The plants and animals of the Green Swamp are adapted to fire and most of them actually need fire on a regular basis in order to truly thrive. Less than one week after the wildfire the wiregrass was already resprouting, and less than two weeks after the fire orchids were blooming! Black bears, Sherman’s fox squirrels, deer, turkey, and more were all sighted in the Green Swamp Preserve in the week following the wildfire.
The ability of native plants to regenerate after a fire is incredible, and in the months following the wildfire, the vegetation has recovered so completely that it is difficult to tell that a burn ever occurred in some places.
First photo (left) taken on June 27th and second (right) on October 9th, just 104 days later, displaying the rapid regeneration of groundcover species.
The two main ecosystems in the Green Swamp Preserve, longleaf pine savanna and pocosin wetland, rely on fire to keep the system healthy and resilient. The longleaf pine savanna requires low-intensity fires very frequently (every 2-5 years), while the pocosin requires high-intensity fires less frequently (every 8-20 years). Even though a high-intensity fire in the pocosin may look catastrophic, the system recovers incredibly quickly.
Time-lapse of 91 days regeneration in a pocosin wetland at the Green Swamp Preserve from July 8th to October 7th.
Venus flytraps, wiregrass, pitcher plants, Bachman’s sparrows, and quail are just a few species that rely on frequent fire to survive. Learn more about these amazing plants and animals below.
Explore the Green Swamp
The aerial imagery on the map below is from less than a month after the wildfire. You can see that the entire preserve was not blackened in the fire. The blue line is the boundary of the whole Green Swamp Preserve, the yellow dashed line outlines the burn units that had been burned in the year before the wildfire using controlled burning methods, and the orange line is considered the maximum extent of the wildfire.
Longleaf Pine Savanna
Longleaf Pine Savanna. Click to expand.
The longleaf pine savanna is characterized by a fire-dependent regime, essential for its health and biodiversity. Historically, frequent and low-intensity fires played a vital role in shaping this ecosystem by eliminating competing vegetation, reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires, and promoting the growth of longleaf pine trees. The longleaf pine ecosystem's unique structure and diversity are intricately linked to its fire regime, making controlled burns a necessary tool for conservation and restoration.
Longleaf Pine Trees
Longleaf Pine Trees. Click to expand.
Longleaf pine trees exhibit distinct fire-adapted growth stages essential for survival and persistence in fire-prone ecosystems. Longleaf pine seedlings are highly susceptible to competition from other vegetation in their early stages. Frequent fires reduce this competition, allowing the longleaf pine to establish itself and develop a grass stage. This stage provides increased resistance to fire and herbivory. Longleaf pine trees have evolved long needles that act as a heat sink, a key component of their fire adaptiveness. During fires, these lengthy needles absorb and dissipate heat away from the tree's core, reducing the risk of lethal damage to the sensitive bud tissues at the top of the tree. These trees also exhibit self-pruning, naturally shedding lower branches as they mature. This self-pruning reduces the ladder fuels that can carry ground fires into the canopy, making longleaf pines less susceptible to severe crown damage during fires. The flaky bark of longleaf pine trees is also a crucial element of their fire adaptiveness. The thin, flaky plates of bark allow the tree to shed burning embers and flames, minimizing the risk of severe damage.
Pocosin Wetlands
Pocosin Wetlands. Click to expand.
Pocosin wetlands are unique and ecologically significant ecosystems in the southeastern United States, particularly in North Carolina and parts of Florida. These wetlands are characterized by their distinctive, acidic, and nutrient-poor soils, often consisting of peat or muck. Pocosins are typically dominated by shrubs and small trees adapted to the challenging waterlogged conditions.
Challenges of Burning in Pocosin
Challenges of Burning in Pocosin. Click to expand.
The high moisture content in pocosins' waterlogged soils hinders the spread of fire and can require specific weather conditions for successful burning. Pocosins often contain highly flammable vegetation that can fuel intense and difficult-to-control fires and organic soil that can catch fire, smolder, and produce smoke for weeks or months. Controlling the intensity of the fire and preventing it from spreading uncontrollably is a significant challenge, particularly during periods of drought. Dense, water-saturated vegetation in pocosins can create substantial amounts of smoke during burns. Managing smoke to minimize its impact on nearby communities, roads, and air quality is essential to consider during prescribed burning operations. Accessing and managing fire in the remote and often inaccessible locations of pocosin wetlands can pose logistical challenges. Ensuring the safety of firefighting personnel and equipment and coordinating efforts with local authorities and stakeholders requires comprehensive planning and coordination.
Recently Burned Areas
Recently Burned Areas. Click to expand.
Many of the savannas were burned in the months leading up to the wildfire (see areas outlined in yellow on the map), and because of that, those areas didn’t burn or burned less severely in the wildfire. When the wildfire hit a recently burned area, it went out or burned at a much lower intensity. These areas act as safety zones for all kinds of wildlife during a fire. Mosaic burning, controlled fires at different intervals and intensities across the landscape, helps create a diverse patchwork of habitats with varying stages of plant growth. This promotes a dynamic and heterogeneous environment that supports a diversity of plant and animal species with different habitat preferences and life cycle requirements.
Venus Flytraps
Venus Flytraps. Click to expand.
The Venus Flytrap is probably the most recognizable species of the hundreds of species that grow in the Green Swamp. The Green Swamp is home to about 30% of the world’s population of flytraps. Flytraps need fire to thrive. They are uniquely adapted to taking advantage of conditions after fire to regrow bigger, flower, and produce seed the following year.
Pond Pine Trees
Pond Pine Trees. Click to expand.
Pond pine trees are well-adapted to wetland environments and have evolved in ecosystems where fire plays a crucial role in their life cycle. Fire helps to clear out competing vegetation, allowing pond pine trees to receive more sunlight and nutrients, thus promoting growth. Pond pine cones are serotinous, meaning that only when a fire sweeps through, melting the resin in the cones, do the cones open up, releasing seeds that are then distributed by wind and gravity. These trees have developed fire-resistant bark and a capacity to resprout from the trunk after damage by fire, allowing them to persist in fire-prone landscapes.
Groundcover Vegetation
Groundcover Vegetation. Click to expand.
Fire is crucial in maintaining healthy groundcover vegetation by allowing sunlight to penetrate the forest floor. When the forest understory becomes overgrown, it can create a dense layer that blocks sunlight from reaching the groundcover plants. This lack of light hinders the growth of native groundcover species, which are essential for ecosystem stability and biodiversity.
Wiregrass
Wiregrass. Click to expand.
Wiregrass, a native grass in the southeastern United States, has evolved to thrive in fire-prone environments and only produces viable seeds if burned during the growing season (April - August).
Fruit-bearing Plants
Fruit-bearing Plants. Click to expand.
Fire is essential for promoting the growth of many fruit-bearing plants that provide a vital food source for wildlife. These burns help increase the production of flowers and fruits by reducing shading and providing the necessary nutrients from ash.
Quail
Quail. Click to expand.
Quail and red-cockaded woodpeckers rely on fire to maintain their habitats and ensure survival. Fire is vital for quail as the burning helps create the open, grassy understory they prefer for nesting and foraging. Burning also reduces dense vegetation that can impede the quails' movement.
Bachman's Sparrows
Bachman's Sparrows. Click to expand.
Bachman's Sparrows, a small bird species found in the southeastern United States, have a unique and vital relationship with fire. Bachman's Sparrows thrive in open, grassy areas with scattered shrubs and minimal tree cover. Fire acts as a natural ecological force that helps prevent the encroachment of woody vegetation and promotes the growth of native grasses and forbs, essential components of the sparrow's diet. Furthermore, periodic burning helps maintain the open understory where Bachman's Sparrows nest and raise their young, providing the cover and visibility they need to protect their nests from predators.
Mammals
Mammals. Click to expand.
Frequent fire is important for mammals in longleaf pine savanna ecosystems because it suppresses the encroachment of woody vegetation, maintaining an open and diverse understory. This understory is essential for many mammal species, providing foraging areas and cover from predators. It also enhances the availability of insects, a crucial part of the diet for many small mammals and birds.
Habitat
Habitat. Click to expand.
Burning creates habitats for healthy ecosystems. The fire leaves behind burnt stumps and standing dead trees, which serve as vital components. These charred remains provide ideal nesting and roosting sites for wildlife, such as birds and small mammals. The hollows and cavities found in standing dead trees provide shelter, while the decaying wood attracts insects and fungi, which enriches the ecosystem.
Ticks
Ticks. Click to expand.
Ticks thrive in tall grasses and leaf litter, which provide them with the necessary cover and humidity to survive. Land managers can eliminate this dense vegetation and disrupt tick habitats through controlled burning, and the heat from the fire directly kills ticks and their eggs.
Longleaf Pine Savanna
The longleaf pine savanna is characterized by a fire-dependent regime, essential for its health and biodiversity. Historically, frequent and low-intensity fires played a vital role in shaping this ecosystem by eliminating competing vegetation, reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires, and promoting the growth of longleaf pine trees. The longleaf pine ecosystem's unique structure and diversity are intricately linked to its fire regime, making controlled burns a necessary tool for conservation and restoration .
Longleaf Pine Trees
Longleaf pine trees exhibit distinct fire-adapted growth stages essential for survival and persistence in fire-prone ecosystems. Longleaf pine seedlings are highly susceptible to competition from other vegetation in their early stages. Frequent fires reduce this competition, allowing the longleaf pine to establish itself and develop a grass stage. This stage provides increased resistance to fire and herbivory. Longleaf pine trees have evolved long needles that act as a heat sink, a key component of their fire adaptiveness. During fires, these lengthy needles absorb and dissipate heat away from the tree's core, reducing the risk of lethal damage to the sensitive bud tissues at the top of the tree. These trees also exhibit self-pruning, naturally shedding lower branches as they mature. This self-pruning reduces the ladder fuels that can carry ground fires into the canopy, making longleaf pines less susceptible to severe crown damage during fires. The flaky bark of longleaf pine trees is also a crucial element of their fire adaptiveness. The thin, flaky plates of bark allow the tree to shed burning embers and flames, minimizing the risk of severe damage.
Pocosin Wetlands
Pocosin wetlands are unique and ecologically significant ecosystems in the southeastern United States, particularly in North Carolina and parts of Florida. These wetlands are characterized by their distinctive, acidic, and nutrient-poor soils, often consisting of peat or muck. Pocosins are typically dominated by shrubs and small trees adapted to the challenging waterlogged conditions.
What sets pocosin wetlands apart is their remarkable biodiversity and role as critical habitat for various wildlife species. They are vital carbon sinks and are crucial in water purification and flood control. Periodic fires help maintain the structure and function of pocosins by preventing the encroachment of woody vegetation and promoting the growth of fire-adapted plant species.
Challenges of Burning in Pocosin
The high moisture content in pocosins' waterlogged soils hinders the spread of fire and can require specific weather conditions for successful burning. Pocosins often contain highly flammable vegetation that can fuel intense and difficult-to-control fires and organic soil that can catch fire, smolder, and produce smoke for weeks or months. Controlling the intensity of the fire and preventing it from spreading uncontrollably is a significant challenge, particularly during periods of drought. Dense, water-saturated vegetation in pocosins can create substantial amounts of smoke during burns. Managing smoke to minimize its impact on nearby communities, roads, and air quality is essential to consider during prescribed burning operations. Accessing and managing fire in the remote and often inaccessible locations of pocosin wetlands can pose logistical challenges. Ensuring the safety of firefighting personnel and equipment and coordinating efforts with local authorities and stakeholders requires comprehensive planning and coordination.
Recently Burned Areas
Many of the savannas were burned in the months leading up to the wildfire (see areas outlined in yellow on the map), and because of that, those areas didn’t burn or burned less severely in the wildfire. When the wildfire hit a recently burned area, it went out or burned at a much lower intensity. These areas act as safety zones for all kinds of wildlife during a fire. Mosaic burning, controlled fires at different intervals and intensities across the landscape, helps create a diverse patchwork of habitats with varying stages of plant growth. This promotes a dynamic and heterogeneous environment that supports a diversity of plant and animal species with different habitat preferences and life cycle requirements.
Venus Flytraps
The Venus Flytrap is probably the most recognizable species of the hundreds of species that grow in the Green Swamp. The Green Swamp is home to about 30% of the world’s population of flytraps. Flytraps need fire to thrive. They are uniquely adapted to taking advantage of conditions after fire to regrow bigger, flower, and produce seed the following year.
Pond Pine Trees
Pond pine trees are well-adapted to wetland environments and have evolved in ecosystems where fire plays a crucial role in their life cycle. Fire helps to clear out competing vegetation, allowing pond pine trees to receive more sunlight and nutrients, thus promoting growth. Pond pine cones are serotinous, meaning that only when a fire sweeps through, melting the resin in the cones, do the cones open up, releasing seeds that are then distributed by wind and gravity. These trees have developed fire-resistant bark and a capacity to resprout from the trunk after damage by fire, allowing them to persist in fire-prone landscapes.
Groundcover Vegetation
Fire is crucial in maintaining healthy groundcover vegetation by allowing sunlight to penetrate the forest floor. When the forest understory becomes overgrown, it can create a dense layer that blocks sunlight from reaching the groundcover plants. This lack of light hinders the growth of native groundcover species, which are essential for ecosystem stability and biodiversity.
Wiregrass
Wiregrass, a native grass in the southeastern United States, has evolved to thrive in fire-prone environments and only produces viable seeds if burned during the growing season (April - August).
Fruit-bearing Plants
Fire is essential for promoting the growth of many fruit-bearing plants that provide a vital food source for wildlife. These burns help increase the production of flowers and fruits by reducing shading and providing the necessary nutrients from ash.
Quail
Quail and red-cockaded woodpeckers rely on fire to maintain their habitats and ensure survival. Fire is vital for quail as the burning helps create the open, grassy understory they prefer for nesting and foraging. Burning also reduces dense vegetation that can impede the quails' movement.
Bachman's Sparrows
Bachman's Sparrows, a small bird species found in the southeastern United States, have a unique and vital relationship with fire. Bachman's Sparrows thrive in open, grassy areas with scattered shrubs and minimal tree cover. Fire acts as a natural ecological force that helps prevent the encroachment of woody vegetation and promotes the growth of native grasses and forbs, essential components of the sparrow's diet. Furthermore, periodic burning helps maintain the open understory where Bachman's Sparrows nest and raise their young, providing the cover and visibility they need to protect their nests from predators.
Mammals
Frequent fire is important for mammals in longleaf pine savanna ecosystems because it suppresses the encroachment of woody vegetation, maintaining an open and diverse understory. This understory is essential for many mammal species, providing foraging areas and cover from predators. It also enhances the availability of insects, a crucial part of the diet for many small mammals and birds.
Habitat
Burning creates habitats for healthy ecosystems. The fire leaves behind burnt stumps and standing dead trees, which serve as vital components. These charred remains provide ideal nesting and roosting sites for wildlife, such as birds and small mammals. The hollows and cavities found in standing dead trees provide shelter, while the decaying wood attracts insects and fungi, which enriches the ecosystem.
Ticks
Ticks thrive in tall grasses and leaf litter, which provide them with the necessary cover and humidity to survive. Land managers can eliminate this dense vegetation and disrupt tick habitats through controlled burning, and the heat from the fire directly kills ticks and their eggs.
Moving Forward
Smoke from the wildfire blowing south, creating extremely low visibility and dangerous driving conditions on highway 17.
Smoke from the Pulp Road wildfire impacted some people’s daily lives and interrupted commutes, vacations, and even a wedding. People with health issues are at particular risk from smoke inhalation. During controlled burns, firefighters choose to burn when the wind speed and direction will avoid sending smoke into smoke-sensitive areas; however, in the event of a wildfire, the smoke will go wherever the wind blows. The smoke was very intense during the Pulp Road wildfire because the pocosin in the Green Swamp Preserve had not burned for a long time (some areas had not seen fire in 68 years). For over 20 years, the Nature Conservancy has been diligently burning longleaf pine savannas in the preserve to manage the habitat and keep fuel loads low, helping mitigate wildfire risk and smoke production. The Pulp Road wildfire significantly reduced fuel loads in the pocosin, and fire managers now have a unique opportunity to design a fire management plan for conducting prescribed burns beyond the longleaf pine savannas and into portions of the pocosin.
Weather Station at the Green Swamp Preserve.
The Nature Conservancy is hosting meetings with scientists and fire experts from all over the state to develop a plan to take advantage of the current situation. One goal is to use controlled burning to maintain low fuel loads and implement the controlled burns while the amount of available fuel is still greatly diminished from the wildfire. Burning more frequently will significantly reduce the amount of smoke from each burn. Fire management of the pocosin in the Green Swamp Preserve will require a collaborative effort, including federal, state, and private partners.
The Nature Conservancy is dedicated to ensuring that the Green Swamp Preserve is managed in a way that continues to provide an ideal habitat for the plants and animals that call it home. To that end, we will continue to burn the savannas regularly and begin working on ways to ensure that it's not another 68 years before the pocosin burns again.
Smoke blowing away from a smoke sensitive area (road).
Pulp Road Wildfire video.
