Huge swath of south Georgia and north Florida continues to burn

July 3, 2011 – GEORGIA – All entrances to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge are closed through the holiday weekend as firefighters continue to battle a 10-week-old blaze that has burned well over half the 400,000-acre preserve. Jason Curry, a spokesman for the federal Incident Management Team, said the preserve will be shuttered to the public indefinitely — at least until authorities, likely with major help from the weather, get it under control. The group is trying to corral what is being called the Honey Prairie Complex Fire. “Mother Nature is in charge, with both the cause of the fire and the resolution to it,” he said. Lightning first sparked a fire on April 28 and it has been burning, in some form, ever since — consuming about 268,000 of the refuge’s 402,000 acres. National Weather Service meteorologist Coleen Decker noted that there’s no immediate relief in sight. “We are looking forward to dry conditions, with relative humidity near 30 to 35% (and) temperatures slightly above normal at 95 degrees,” she said of the upcoming forecast for the region. “We are not expecting significant precipitation until Tuesday.” Centuries ago, the Native Americans called this area Okefenoka, meaning “Land of the Trembling Earth,” according to the refuge’s website. Currently, this large swath of territory in South Georgia and north Florida — which includes cypress forest, lakes and islands, in addition to marsh — is home to more than 400,000 species of animals including alligators, Sandhill cranes and red-cockaded woodpeckers. While the threat has been ongoing, closures of certain once public parts of the park picked up last month. That includes the June 9 suspension of all boating from Kingfisher Landing, the June 13 closure of the Suwanee Canal Recreation Area and all hiking trails near the east entrance, and the June 16 closure of Stephen C. Foster State Park. –CNN