Currie, NC – Moores Creek National Battlefield will be conducting a controlled burn in the park on Tuesday, March 22, 2022. The burn will begin at approximately 10:00 am and will last approximately 5 hours, with residual smoke and small spot fires continuing through the rest of the day and evening. For the safety of visitors and the staff conducting the prescribed fire, the park will be closed all day Tuesday and will return to normal operations on Wednesday, March 23.
The areas affected include the Southwest Unit, Savanna Unit, and adjacent 48-acre property. The Southwest Unit is an area of the park that starts to the left of the entrance westward to the park boundary, and then north to the creek. This area borders Hwy 210 on one side and the Visitor Center Parking Lot and Monuments on the other side. The Savanna Unit is the area in between the Visitor Center and Battlefield, and the park’s History Trail encircles it. The adjacent 48-acre property is to the west of the park boundary and is private property.
Moores Creek conducts these burns annually for several reasons:
1. By applying prescribed fire on a regular and rotational basis, the park reduces the amount of fuel loads that exist in the park that, if left untreated, would pile up and cause a major forest fire, posing serious threats to the park and neighboring lands.
2. By applying prescribed fire on a regular and rotational basis, the park is transforming the landscape back to what it may have looked like historically in 1776 at the time of the battle. This measure reduces the amount of invasive and weedy trees that tend to grow in areas that are not maintained by fires that naturally occurred historically.
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