Burn Planned for Memorial Forest

In Spring 2025, SVT and the City of Marlborough plan to hold a prescribed burn over 75 acres of SVT's Memorial Forest and the City's Desert Conservation Land. The burn is part of our long-term habitat restoration project at these properties, which are located in the 900-acre Desert Natural Area at the intersection of Sudbury, Marlborough, and Hudson. 

See a map of the burn area and trails.

See a map of the trail closures.

The fire will help to rejuvenate a globally rare pitch pine-scrub oak barrens habitat that supports many declining and threatened species of wildlife, including whip-poor-will and Eastern towhee birds, frosted elfin butterflies, and wild lupine plants.

The pitch pine-scrub oak barrens require occasional fires in order to thrive. SVT and the City previously held a burn at this site in 2014, and over the past few years, we have been clearing trees and brush and creating fire breaks in preparation for a second burn. 

We have a contract with the Star Tree Wildfire Protection LLC to conduct the burn. We have also informed our local fire departments and the Department of Conservation and Recreation's regional fire warden of the plan, and all are supportive of it. 

On February 25, 2025, we held an in-person/Zoom information session about the burn at the Goodnow Library in Sudbury. Watch a recording of the Zoom presentation.

The Spring 2025 burn has received grant funding from MassWildlife; Hollis Declan Leverett Memorial Fund, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; and the DuPont Clear Into the Future program.