DELTA COUNTY, MI-- People in Delta County may notice smoke on the horizon Tuesday, but the U.S. Forest Service already knows about it.
Officials have been preparing the past few weeks to initiate prescribed burns in the Hiawatha National Forest. Tuesday they plan to burn an area near Dutch Mill, about nine miles north of Rapid River and one mile west of US-41. About 97 acres were burned there in 2012, and 75 acres have yet to be burned.
Forest officials say the burns will maintain large openings across the forest at a landscape level, which will serve as natural firebreaks, improve wildlife habitat, and reduce non-native invasive species.
