Brooker Creek Preserve burnt to prepare for lightning season
By Times Staff Writer
Published May 13, 2004
EAST LAKE - If it looked like the Brooker Creek Preserve was on fire Wednesday, that's because it was. Pinellas County officials burned about 27 acres in the northeastern part of the preserve near the Pinellas-Hillsborough county line.
Controlled burns serve a variety of purposes, said Keith Thompson, a county land management division official who supervised the burn. "We're getting into the lightning season, which is one of our main fire seasons," he said.
In addition to eliminating dry brush and undergrowth that could feed a wildfire later on, controlled burns remove diseased trees and help control exotic plant species, he said.
