State official: Pilot Mountain fire has lessons about climate change and more

Most of Pilot Mountain State Park has reopened now that a wildfire that burned more than 1,000 acres has been contained.

The fire was aided by unusually dry weather and occasionally high winds.

D. Reid Wilson is secretary of the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. He saw the fire firsthand during a visit with Gov. Roy Cooper this month. He says one lesson is that climate change needs to be addressed.

“This whole state is vulnerable because of where we are, in between mountains and the ocean,” he says. “So, all communities should be thinking of ways that they can become more resilient to the harmful effects of climate change, whether it's fires and drought, or rain and hurricanes.”

Wilson says prescribed burns got rid of much of the natural fuel that could have made the fire far worse. What he saw was ground that was gray and ashy, but trees that for the most part were burned only at the base and will likely survive.

There are pits and other places where fires are allowed in the park. Wilson says this one escaped after it was built in an unauthorized area.