UNION COUNTY, NJ — The New Jersey Forest Fire Service will conduct a prescribed burn of approximately 3 acres in what is known as the “Red Hill” section of Union County’s Ash Brook Reservation in Scotch Plains, county officials announced in an April 9 press release.
The burn, in an area located between Raritan Road and Martine Avenue, will last approximately two hours. No date or time has yet been set as it is weather dependent, county officials said.
Once a date is known, it will be posted on the county’s webpage and social media, distributed to news media, and sent through the County’s First Alert email system to residents.
Prescribed burns are common executed throughout the state by the Forest Fire Service, a unit of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Parks and Forestry, the release said.
The area in the Ash Brook Reservation to be burned is not immediately near any houses or private property, county officials said, and the purpose of the burn is to eliminate possible fuel for a potential future forest fire, manage encroaching invasive plants, and to prevent the area from changing from a native meadow into a forest.