Editor's note: Due to wind and rain in the forecast, as well as the impacts from Monday evening’s severe thunderstorms, the prescribed fire scheduled for the week of May 1 at The Arboretum at Penn State has been canceled.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Arboretum at Penn State, in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, will conduct a prescribed burn on a 12-acre portion of the Arboretum site during the week of May 1.
The operation will take place within a single workday between Monday, May 1, and Thursday, May 4, weather permitting. Follow-up notifications will be provided when the schedule is finalized, including a pre-burn notice 24 hours before the beginning of the operation. Because scheduling depends upon favorable weather conditions, it can be difficult to pinpoint an exact operation date more than a week in advance.
The burn site will be located in College Township near Big Hollow and Tower roads. The prescribed burn is being conducted as part of the Arboretum’s ongoing prairie restoration project, through which an old livestock pasture is being converted into a more species-diverse meadow or “prairie patch” containing native grasses and wildflowers.
This spring’s prescribed fire will be the third such operation the Arboretum has carried out with The Nature Conservancy and the Pennsylvania Game Commission. The burn will be conducted in accordance with the Pennsylvania Prescribed Burning Practices Act (Act 17 of 2009) and associated prescribed fire standards.