Mondee Tilley | The News
The sun beams through a haze of smoke at the summit of Pilot Mountain on Friday as North Carolina Forest Service personnel work to extinguish a blaze that started out as a prescribed burn on Thursday.
Mondee Tilley | The News
More than 100 acres burned on Pilot Mountain Friday evening.
Mondee Tilley | The News
A helicopter with the North Carolina Forest Service flies past the knob on Pilot Mountain on Friday. It continually dropped water on the controlled burn that got out of control on Thursday.
Mondee Tilley | The News
A helicopter could be seen through bare branches on Pilot Mountain as it was circling the mountain dropping water on a wildfire Friday.
Mondee Tilley | The News
Janet Pearson, the superintendent at Stone Mountain State Park, walks up the path with a North Carolina Forest Service firefighter to the overlook on Pilot Mountain fire through thick smoke.
Mondee Tilley | The News
A stump near one of the overlooks on top of Pilot Mountain burns as all of the leaves and ground debris around it is already scortched.
PILOT MOUNTAIN — These are the images taken by Mount Airy News Staff Reporter Mondee Tilley on Friday evening to show the devastation of a prescribed burn that started Thursday, but got out of control and continued to burn today.
This business of calling a planned burn of forest "Controlled Burn" is perpetuating the myth that people can burn forest land in a controlled manner. The Croatan fire earlier this year was a "controlled fire" planned for 1500 acres and ended up at 21,000 acres. This mistake cost taxpayers $1.2 million dollars.
In addition to the inability to control forest burning, the said reasons for doing so lack merit: reduce danger of wildfires, species/forest restoration, save money by eliminating the extensiveness of wildfires and the cost of extinguishing wildfires.
A growing industry is being built on burning forests. The industry stakeholders include consultants, equipment manufacturers, forest service personnel specialists, helicopter pilots, grant writers, associations, and believe it not supposed nature conservancies.
These stakeholders are busy working to have relevance with their careers/businesses/salaries. This industry is promoting burning and increasing their business share. One plan for burning next year is in the Grandfather District of the Pisgah Forest. The plan is to burn 40,000 acres including 12,000 acres in the Linville Gorge Wilderness. A great wonder is how and who can justify burning the Linville Gorge Wilderness when the "Wilderness" designation's intent is legislate that man can not interfere with this environment; no roads, no vehicles, no chainsaws..., and certainly not pay people to do it. What is going on here and why are we spending public money to support it?