UCSB Schedules Prescribed Burn for Lagoon Island
Clears Nonnative Vegetation and Provides Firefighter Training
UCSB and the Santa Barbara County Fire Department are staging a prescribed burn on the university campus’s lagoon island this Saturday, July 21.
The burn — which is expected to last from about 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will encompass no more than an acre of land — is a collaboration between the university’s Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) and its Fire Protection Division, along with County Fire’s Arson Task Force.
The burn will serve as both an arson training and as a means of getting rid of the nonnative plants on the island, which will be replaced by native plants in the winter, said Lisa Stratton, the natural areas director for CCBER.
This will be the fifth time the university has conducted such a burn, with Stratton explaining that the first two burns were experimental and the following three have been management-oriented.
