State of Delaware Department of Transportation
03/26/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/26/2026 13:22
New Castle County - Prescribed Burn at Dove's Nest Spring 2026
The Delaware Department of Transportation's (DelDOT) Environmental Stewardship section will hold a prescribed fire at Dove's Nest within the next two weeks. The exact date, weather-dependent, will be posted here as soon as it is available.
Dove's Nest is a 43-acre meadow habitat that boasts a wide variety of wildflowers and native shrubs and is managed by DelDOT. Dove's Nest is located west of the Spring Mill community, Route 71 (Summit Bridge Road), just north of Middletown, adjacent to US 301.
A prescribed fire is the intentional application of a fire to a specific area, under specific environmental conditions and parameters, to accomplish planned land management objectives and meet ecological goals.
Several benefits of prescribed fire are minimizing the spread of pest insects and disease, removing invasive plant species, and improving the habitat for threatened and endangered species. It also recycles nutrients back into the soil, and it promotes the growth of native grasses, wildflowers, and other plants.
The Delaware Forest Service (DFS) will oversee the prescribed burn. Burns like this are performed before the nesting season and growing season. The burn area will be divided into strips or plots, leaving undisturbed escape routes for wildlife. Also, firebreaks are installed around the burn area to maintain control of the burn.
The burn will only be performed if weather conditions are ideal. For example, wind direction and speed, relative humidity levels, and vegetation conditions must be ideal, or the burn will not happen.
Smoke generation is a natural part of fire. Smoke mitigation procedures will be implemented to reduce the amount of smoke generated, such as only burning in specific atmospheric conditions to allow for smoke to rise quickly and using a patch burning technique which creates pulses of smoke rather than a continuous sheet of smoke.
Please visit de.gov/301burn, call 302-760-7080, or e-mail [email protected] for more information. For the Delaware Forest Service, please contact Wildland Fire Supervisor Sam Topper at [email protected] or Community Relations Officer Stephanie Alexander at [email protected].
Dove's Nest is a 43-acre meadow habitat that boasts a wide variety of wildflowers and native shrubs and is managed by DelDOT. Dove's Nest is located west of the Spring Mill community, Route 71 (Summit Bridge Road), just north of Middletown, adjacent to US 301.
A prescribed fire is the intentional application of a fire to a specific area, under specific environmental conditions and parameters, to accomplish planned land management objectives and meet ecological goals.
Several benefits of prescribed fire are minimizing the spread of pest insects and disease, removing invasive plant species, and improving the habitat for threatened and endangered species. It also recycles nutrients back into the soil, and it promotes the growth of native grasses, wildflowers, and other plants.
The Delaware Forest Service (DFS) will oversee the prescribed burn. Burns like this are performed before the nesting season and growing season. The burn area will be divided into strips or plots, leaving undisturbed escape routes for wildlife. Also, firebreaks are installed around the burn area to maintain control of the burn.
The burn will only be performed if weather conditions are ideal. For example, wind direction and speed, relative humidity levels, and vegetation conditions must be ideal, or the burn will not happen.
Smoke generation is a natural part of fire. Smoke mitigation procedures will be implemented to reduce the amount of smoke generated, such as only burning in specific atmospheric conditions to allow for smoke to rise quickly and using a patch burning technique which creates pulses of smoke rather than a continuous sheet of smoke.
Please visit de.gov/301burn, call 302-760-7080, or e-mail [email protected] for more information. For the Delaware Forest Service, please contact Wildland Fire Supervisor Sam Topper at [email protected] or Community Relations Officer Stephanie Alexander at [email protected].
State of Delaware Department of Transportation published this content on March 26, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on March 26, 2026 at 19:22 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]