Prescribed Burn planned for Radnor Lake State Natural Area on March 22nd, 2021 (11am-5pm)

Radnor Lake State Natural Area will be conducting a prescribed burn on March 22nd in the Hall Farm area of the natural area south of Otter Creek Road. This burn will be conducted by Tennessee State Parks, Tennessee Division of Natural Areas and Tennessee Division of Forestry and is part of our prescribed burn management plan for Radnor Lake every 2-3 years. We conducted a prescribed burn in February at Radnor Lake, however we were unable to complete that burn due to changing wind conditions and postponed completing our burn plan for all 4 areas of the natural area.

The goal of this burn is to prep the remaining 2 areas for native grasslands plantings, promote plant species that need fire management such as common milkweed (host plant to Monarch Butterflies), promote endangered plant species research and promote native grassland nesting areas for birds such as bobwhite quail and eastern meadowlarks. State Park Rangers from across the State of Tennessee will be traveling into Radnor to assist the Radnor Lake Staff with this effort.

This prescribed burn will not be near any homes or neighborhoods and will only be conducted if weather conditions are favorable for a safe prescribed burn on Monday, March 22nd during the period of 11am-5pm.

For visitors hiking on March 22nd, the Hall Drive to the Barbara J. Mapp Aviary Center will be closed for approximately 5 hours today as part of our safety precautions of this prescribed burn. The eastern portion of the South Cove-South Lake Trails will be part of this prescribed burn as part of our endangered plant research with Penn State University. There will be state park rangers stationed on these trails during a portion of our burns today as a safety precaution as well.

Visitors and neighbors at Radnor may smell or see smoke during the day. These burns are conducted in phases, specifically 2 phases on Monday to allow us to complete our burn from last month which we only were able to complete 2 of the 4 areas we had planned due to changing wind conditions that day. We have also notified Metro/Nashville of this prescribed burn in the event of any phone calls of concern during the day.

Thank you in advance for your support and we hope you chose to take a hike on the Hall Drive to the aviary center or hike the South Cove-South Lake Trails in coming days to see this resource management effort firsthand.