Scorched Earth
From the wide, grassy sweep of Katama Plains to the rolling wooded hills of the north shore, the charred smell of smoke hung in the air throughout March and April this year in many of the Island’s outlying places.
Scorched Earth
From the wide, grassy sweep of Katama Plains to the rolling wooded hills of the north shore, the charred smell of smoke hung in the air throughout March and April this year in many of the Island’s outlying places.
Controlled Burn
The Martha’s Vineyard Prescribed Fire Partnership plans to conduct a controlled burn today, April 23, at Quansoo Farm in Chilmark. Smoke may be visible above the south coast, heading south over the ocean.
Controlled Burn
The Vineyard Golf Club will be conducting a prescribed burn of native grass areas of the course. The purpose is to control invasive broadleaf weeds and woody material and to promote little bluestem and fine fescues in native grass areas of the course. The burn will be supervised by Northeast Forest and Fire Management LLC and will occur between Oct. 12 and next April, as determined by the Edgartown fire department.
The back of the T-shirt read: “Burn Crew 2007. Burning landscapes near you.” Under those words was the equivalent of a band’s performance schedule, a dozen locales across six states.
And even though the wearer of the shirt and eight other members of her group were sitting around in a circle in a weedy clearing in the woods in firefighting gear on Wednesday, it was very like the atmosphere at the sound check before a music gig.
The smoke may have cleared from the controlled burn performed by the U.S. Navy last Wednesday on Noman’s Land, but questions remain this week as to whether more could have been done to alert the public and prevent the confusion that led to a barrage of calls to the Island communications center.
Officials at the Dukes County communications center last week received between 50 to 100 calls while the fire burned on Noman’s, the small uninhabited island off the southern coast of Chilmark.
Island emergency officials were inundated with
calls from concerned residents Wednesday afternoon after a haze of smoke
and ash descended on the Island from a brush fire on Noman’s Land, the small uninhabited island off the southern coast
of Chilmark.
The fire was part of a
controlled burn started by the U.S. Navy to clear away underbrush and
expose unexploded ordinances left on Noman’s during
training exercises over the past five decades. Noman’s
Land is part of the town of the town of Chilmark, but is owned by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
