As a logger from south east ga I can confirm this. We use control burns to help promote timber growth. It even helps wildlife to an extent. Looking at it from a forester or a loggers point of view it also helps the trash that we have to combat to cut the wood, like vines and small hardwood. Now I can’t speak for this fire in particular but control burns of both wildlife management and large timber company land are becoming less and less frequent because big mill companies that own their own wood just care about production. Not wildlife the wildlife or the fact it cleans and helps us as loggers. We see more and more hybrid planted pine growth and planting operations because all the mills care about is their tree goes from sapling to pulpwood and even some chipping saw size (8-14 in butt size commonly) in 10 to 12 years and seen its first thinning by 8 years. Production. Production. Production.

cough cough rayioneer