Only two local residents attended a Thursday evening meeting at the Greene County Courthouse about the U.S. Forest Service's "prescribed fire" plans for the Cherokee National Forest.

The 6 p.m. meeting in the courthouse's Criminal Courtroom was hosted by Terry Bowerman, the U.S. Forest Service's Nolichucky/Watauga District Ranger, and Greg Salansky, the district fire-management officer.

Also in attendance was Danny R. Price, who is a field representative for U.S. Rep. Phil Rowe, R-1st, of Johnson City.

Before the meeting, Price said a petition signed by 123 citizens opposed to controlled burning in the Cherokee National Forest, had been forwarded to his office in Morristown.

The petition said, "We, the undersigned, are opposed to the prescribed and control(ed) burning of U.S. Forest Service property ... "Due to strong south winds, the burning would affect elderly people, as well as close proximity to dwelling houses, churches, the home for children (an apparent reference to Free Will Baptist Ministries), the Oaks Family Conference Center and Campground, schools, small game, trees that young animals are born in, not to mention the beautification of our natural lands."

But only two members of the public attended the Thursday evening meeting and neither asked a question or made a comment.

After a welcome from District Ranger Bowerman, Fire Management Officer Salansky presented an audio-visual program that explained why the U.S. Forest Service, and other federal agencies, uses "prescribed burning" as a forest-mangement tool.

He noted that "prescribed burns" follow a "prescription," or careful plan, and are conducted only when weather conditions allow for safe burning.

Normally, he said, efforts are made to burn forest land only when winds will carry smoke away from towns and other populated areas.

He noted that the decision to conduct a burn is made the day the burns are conducted only after weather conditions are checked to ensure that humidity levels and winds are at the proper levels.

Each prescribed burn, he said, is conducted in accordance with a 21-element "burn plan" by a team of up to 30 Forest Service employees.

He said the burns normally take no more than two days to complete, and that while the smoke from prescribed burns normally is seen for no more than two days, smoke from wildfires can linger for weeks.

But Bowerman noted that "smoke sinks at night" and that some area residents will smell smoke when prescribed burns are conducted even under perfect conditions.

Salansky said prescribed burns have been conducted in the Cherokee National Forest annually since 1996 and that such burns are conducted only in March and April.

"We have to be finished by May 1," he said.

This year, he said, the U.S. Forest Service plans to conduct two prescribed burns in the southern Greene County portion of the Cherokee National Forest.

The Henry Ridge and Phillips Hollow areas, he said, encompass a total of 2,260 acres and are located on the slopes of Camp Creek Bald (sometimes called Viking Mountain).

District Ranger Bowerman said the exact date of the burns will not be known until the day of the fires.

Salansky explained that prescribed burns are conducted during dormant periods "before the sap rises in the trees."

He maintained that prescribed burns, which are intentionally set at the tops of ridges and burn down the ridge slopes, burn with much less intensity than do wildfires.

Salansky said the flames associated with prescribed burns normally are only about a foot high and do not impose threats to most wildlife.

Larger animals, such as deer and bear, can literally jump over such flames or simply leave the area where the burns are being conducted.

Most burrowing animals, he said, are still underground during the time of the year when prescribed burns are conducted. Birds, he said, have generally not yet had their young in spring when prescribed burns are conducted.

He also said prescribed burn fires normally burn underbrush and leaves and do not reach high into trees.

The presentation shown by Salansky indicated that the U.S. Forest Service believes the benefits of using prescribed burns are that they:

* enhance wildlife habitat,

* improve forest (tree) health,

* promote biological diversity,

* reduce hazardous fuel build-up (especially in areas where trees have been killed by the Southern Pine Beetle, and

* reduce the intensity of future wildfires.