The Nature Conservancy and The Trustees of Reservations will be conducting late spring prescribed burns on Martha’s Vineyard.

The Nature Conservancy’s two prescribed fires will take place at the Katama Airfield in Edgartown and the Frances Newhall Woods Preserve in West Tisbury, sometime between April 25 and the end of May.

The Trustees of Reservations will conduct prescribed fires at the Long Point Refuge in West Tisbury and at Wasque on Chappaquiddick. The burn window was from March 31 through June 30.

Fires will be set when weather, fuel conditions, staffing and other circumstances allow.

The Vineyard's sandplain has a long history of frquent fires, which shaped the ecology of the habitat. Fire suppression interrupted the pattern, threatening rare wildlife that is adapted to frequent fires. The prescribed burns restore the fire-dependent natural communities and enhance public safety by reducing overgrown, potentially-flammable habitat.

The Trustees and the Nature Conservancy conduct the controlled burns in conjunction with Northeast Forest and Fire Management LLC, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation bureau of forest fire control, and Mass Audubon.

For more information contact the Nature Conservancy’s Islands office at 508-693-6287 or The Trustees of Reservations at 508-693-7662.