Here’s why International Drive in Carolina Forest will be closed part of next week

Horry County government announced Friday morning that it would close International Drive — the five-lane road that connects Highway 90 to the Carolina Bays Parkway — next week due to controlled burns that the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) plans to conduct at the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve.

In a news release, the county said International Drive will be closed to all traffic from Ocean Bay Elementary School to Highway 90, and that county police will be on site to enforce the closure. Smoke from the controlled burns will likely be present in the area depending on weather conditions.

How long International Drive is closed also depends on weather conditions. In the release, the county said the road could be closed from 10 a.m. Monday morning, March 8, to Friday night, March 12. David Lucas, a spokesperson for DNR, said Friday that it’s possible the road could reopen and then re-close periodically throughout the week, though that depends on how the smoke behaves and the weather conditions.

“You have to check conditions the morning of,” he said. “All those things are so variable to individual burns, that’s why you close the road and wait to reopen it.”

DNR conducts controlled burns at the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve as a means to prevent larger, uncontrolled wildfires that could threaten the ecosystem of the forest as well as the surrounding communities. During this burn, DNR, in conjunction with the South Carolina Forestry Commission, will outline several blocks of the forest that it plans to burn, surrounded by a fire buffer, and set fire to the dead, dried leaves and branches on the forest floor. Those elements pose the most serious risk of sparking a forest fire, Lucas said, so DNR burns them down before that can happen.

“That fuel, if it builds up over time and you get a lightening strike … you get a fire that burns really hot and really fast,” Lucas said.

Controlled burns, he added, “reduce the danger.”

In addition to preventing wildfires, controlled burns support the unique ecosystem of Lewis Ocean Bay. Home to longleaf pines and pond pines, as well as venus fly traps, pitcher-pants and orchids, the fire produces elements that supports those plants and the overall ecosystem. The preserve is also home to several Carolina Bays, elliptical depressions in the earth that often fill with water and allow for a diverse array of trees, plants and wildlife to thrive nearby.

DNR last conducted a controlled burn at the preserve in March 2019. Controlled burns will also be conducted in the forest across International Drive, though the timeline for when those burns will occur is unclear. DNR aims to conduct controlled burns at the preserve once a year, sometime between November and April.

Controlled burns in the International Drive area have taken on a new importance in recent months due to a planned development nearby and an infrastructure program run by Horry County.

Conway Medical Center and DNR have butted heads recently over a planned hospital CMC is seeking to build along International Drive, catercorner from Ocean Bay Elementary School, but past the road closure gate that’s activated during controlled burns. In letters sent to Horry County planners, DNR officials wrote that they felt a hospital was “incompatible” with the area due to smoke from the nearby controlled burns. In response, CMC has amended its plans several times and said it would build the hospital with an HVAC system and other amenities that would keep all smoke out of the building.

In a related situation, some Horry County leaders have expressed concerns about the hospital because it, too, will need to conduct controlled burns in a wetlands forest it owns across the street from the Lewis Ocean Bay preserve. As part of its $600 million RIDE 3 road and infrastructure program, Horry County needs to preserve a certain amount of wetlands to make up for other wetlands it will needs to fill in or damage as it builds and widens roads elsewhere. If the hospital prevented controlled burns on the land, which are needed to obtain wetlands credits from the federal government, the county’s road plan could be affected.

As things stand now, the county and CMC are currently working on a development plan to allow the hospital to move forward.