Controlled Burn

South Florida Fire & Aviation will conduct a series of prescribed fire operations across Big Cypress National Preserve over the coming months, as weather conditions and other parameters permit. The planned treatment areas cover approximately 81,002 acres in 4 separate burn treatment units, strategically placed throughout the preserve as part of a multi-year fuels treatment plan.

A lessee with the South Florida Water Management District plans to conduct a prescribed burn of up to 200 acres in the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project Area next to Paradise Run in Glades County.

The South Florida Water Management District is conducting a 3,000-acre prescribed burn in the C-43 Reservoir in western Hendry County today.

Wildland firefighters in the Big Cypress National Preserve are planning to light the first of three prescribed fires on June 9 to clear out dead underbrush. The so-called Mullet fire is being lit less than a week after decent rains fell on Florida for the first time in five months, and Southwest Florida and the Everglades are still gripped by drought.

Enough rain fell during the end of May and beginning of June across the southern portion of the Florida peninsula to significantly lower the drought conditions — except for Southwest Florida including the Everglades, which remain in "extreme drought" according to the U.S. Drought Monitor