PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY — It took more than a year to plan a burn at Manassas Battlefield National Park.
This past week, National Park Service rangers scorched 45 acres of battlefield parkland just outside Manassas where the place where the Civil War began, adjacent to the eastern edge of Brawner Farm.
This was the first-ever prescribed burn at the park in an effort to restore the viewshed to what it looked like when the war began in 1861. The burn also irradiates invasive plants like shrubs and assists wildlife birds like quail and woodcock, and turkey, as well as four-legged creatures like bobcat and deer.
“If you look through history, burning fields is a common practice,” said Chris Alford, a National Park Service Ranger and Wildland Firefighter.
Alford said many stepped to watch the planned burn which lasts for a few hours on April 11.
Park officials had to wait for spring to accomplish the prescribed burn. In January, the fields are more muddy than April. It’s a “low-slow” burn versus a fast, hot burn that would be more apt to rip across the fields in the park and potentially burn more acres than originally planned.
Weather also played a factor, as officials looked for conditions of 22 to 40% relative humidity, and low winds.
Alford said there could be more controlled burns at Manassas Battlefield National Park in the future, though none are scheduled. Other National Parks like Gettysburg, Antietam, and in Fredericksburg are using fire for the same purposes.
The park was formed in 1940 when the Sons of the Confederacy gifted the land for the park to the federal government.
Last year, the park welcomed 605,577 visitors. The parks welcomed the highest number of annual visitors in 1978 and 1997 with more than 1 million visitors for each of those years.
