New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Region 4 Acting Regional Director John Weidman today announced that DEC's Bureau of Wildlife, under the expertise of Forest Rangers, will conduct controlled burns at the Louise E. Keir Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in the town of Coeymans, Albany County, to help reestablish native vegetation and wildlife in the area. The controlled burns, also called prescribed burns, will encompass up to 31 acres and begin in the coming weeks, depending on weather conditions.

"Prescribed burns can be critical to the survival of native vegetation and the wildlife species that depend on them," Acting Regional Director Weidman said. "This effort is the third burn on this WMA since 2019, and we are hopeful the safe and strategic reintroduction of fire to this precious landscape continues to restore, improve, and maintain the health of this ecosystem."

The Louise E. Keir WMA was once a rare and significant natural community in New York State known as a pitch pine-oak-heath rocky summit community, dependent on fires to maintain and preserve the area's mix of pitch pine, oak, and blueberry. Exclusion of fire from this landscape resulted in significant degradation of the woodland community over the years, which allowed undesirable growth of plant species like white pine and red maple. Restoring this ecological system through controlled burns is part of a host of DEC Bureau of Wildlife management actions designed to improve forest health and habitat for native wildlife species, as well as clear brush and other vegetation that could contribute to wildfires.

Restoring this ecological system through controlled burns is part of a host of DEC Bureau of Wildlife management actions designed to improve forest health and habitat for native wildlife species, as well as clear brush and other vegetation that could contribute to wildfires.

New York State DEC Forest Rangers will supervise the controlled burns using one of their certified National Wildfire Coordinating Group burn bosses. DEC Natural Resource staff, the local fire department, and the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission will also assist, and the team will work closely with meteorologists and other scientists to determine if weather conditions are appropriate for a burn.

Additionally, DEC will notify neighboring properties by means of a postcard mailing. For more information about the controlled burns, contact DEC Region 4 Young Forest Initiative Biologist Selinda Brandon at (607) 652-2302. For more information about public use of Louise E. Keir WMA, contact the DEC Region 4 Bureau of Wildlife at (607) 652-7367.