The Prescribed Burn at Francis Marion

Every spring, forestry crews in South Carolina's Francis Marion National Forest do something that looks like destruction. They walk through stands of longleaf pine with drip torches, deliberately setting the underbrush ablaze. Smoke billows. The forest floor blackens. To anyone driving past on Highway 17, it looks like disaster. But the crews know exactly what they are doing. Decades of fallen needles, invasive scrub, and choking undergrowth have smothered the forest floor, blocking sunlight from reaching the soil.…