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Controlled Burn Held At Manassas Battlefield Park To Restore Civil War Landscape

National Park Service wildland firefighters set a prescribed fire in Manassas National Battlefield Park's Brawner Farm area to help the area look more like Civil War soldiers would have seen it.
Brian Gorsia
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NPS
National Park Service wildland firefighters set a prescribed fire in Manassas National Battlefield Park's Brawner Farm area to help the area look more like Civil War soldiers would have seen it.

The cannons were quiet this time but there was fire and smoke anyway at the Manassas National Battlefield Park during a prescribed burn intended to maintain the look of the area as Civil War soldiers would have known it.

The National Park Service says it waited for ideal weather conditions to spark the blaze last week on 60 acres of Brawner's Farm where soldiers fought on Aug. 28, 1862, during the Battle of Second Manassas.

Nathan King / NPS
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NPS

The Confederates defeated Union troops in the historic battle. The park service says among the winners of the controlled burn are creatures including Northern bobwhite and American woodcock whose habitat benefits from the brush clearing.

Nathan King / NPS
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NPS

Managers have been clearing vegetation to restore the wartime feel of the land since 1985, when the park service acquired Brawner's Farm in Prince William County, Va.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Bryan Gorsira / NPS
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NPS

Vanessa Romo is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She covers breaking news on a wide range of topics, weighing in daily on everything from immigration and the treatment of migrant children, to a war-crimes trial where a witness claimed he was the actual killer, to an alleged sex cult. She has also covered the occasional cat-clinging-to-the-hood-of-a-car story.
Barbara Campbell