Monitoring a Pocosin fire and its recovery

The Pains Bay Fire was started by lightning on May 4, 2011 in the peaty soils of North Carolina’s coastal plain. By the end of June, the fire was contained, but the deep soils continued to smolder for weeks. The white line marks this 45,000 acre fire’s final perimeter. The center of the fire burned with low severity, allowing rapid recovery of herbs, ferns and sprouting woody species by August; yet an outer ring shows a longer lasting departure from prior years. For more information about this fire event and its progression, look here: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2218/. (image: USFWS)