The Oklahoma National Guard’s Camp Gruber Training Center has announced their intention to initiate prescribed (controlled) burns this spring and summer.
 
Camp Gruber Training Center (CGTC) is the primary training location for the Oklahoma Army National Guard. It is located near Braggs, Oklahoma, in Muskogee County and covers a total of 33,027 acres.
 
The Center has its own fire department that is responsible for the administration of the Center’s wildland fire program, which includes responding to wildfires and conducting prescribed fires when needed.
 
According to CGTC’s Deputy Fire Chief, Doug Owens, the prescribed burns will take place beginning in January until April, and then again from mid-August into September, subject to daily weather conditions.
 
“The primary cause of wildfires at Camp Gruber is military training activities, but some fires are caused by lightning strikes and arson,” said Owens. “The setting of prescribed fires is a necessary land management practice, used for managing the dry undergrowth and other vegetation that feed wildfires and for maintaining the natural, fire-dependent vegetation.”
 
Wildland fire management on CGTC is integrated with the military mission, the Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan (INRMP) and the Integrated Cultural Resources Management Plan (ICRMP), in conjunction with the Department of the Army (DA) wildland fire policy. In addition, the CGTC IWFMP is in alignment with the Federal Wildland Fire Management Policy in response to wildland fire as a natural process on the landscape.