“Please don’t touch the bright hotness or allow it to harm you,” an Alabama conservation agency advised this week, after Facebook forced it to get creative with its language.

It’s fire, y’all. “Bright hotness” is fire.

On its Facebook page, the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources often posts notice of controlled burns. The limited, low-intensity fires are used to keep forests healthy. They help keep invasive plants in check, they support healthy pine growth and they clear out brushy growth that can fuel destructive forest fires.

Apparently, though, one such post about a planned fire in in a northwest Alabama wildlife management area was blocked by Facebook “for coordinating harm and promoting crime.” It seems it was interpreted as a statement about a planned arson.

Scrolling through the page turns up examples of similar notices that didn’t run afoul of Meta’s minders. One such post reads “Today we are burning south of the intersection of Hawk Road and Raccoon Road at Barbour WMA.”

But in this case, the post was flagged and somebody had to get creative with their wording to get the message across.

“Not sure how to say this the right way now,” said a second attempt, posted midweek. “Bright hotness will be used today on Freedom Hills WMA. This bright hotness will be applied on both sides of the Natchez Trace and Miller Road. Please don’t touch the bright hotness or allow it to harm you. This bright hotness is for habitat improvement purposes.”

Marianne Gauldin, an outreach specialist with the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division, said there never was any intent for its controlled burn notice to be interpreted as an invitation to a riot. “I had to think of a gentler way to describe BURNING after our usual advisory about prescribed fire activities was flagged as coordinating harm and promoting crime,” she said Friday via email.

But if the rewording helped draw attention to the practice, that’s all good, she said.

“Prescribed fire is an essential tool that our Wildlife Biologists and Wildlife Technicians use appropriately for enhancing wildlife habitats,” she said. “Prescribed burning provides an enormous benefit to a variety of game and nongame wildlife species. We appreciate the fact that our post was flagged because it certainly helped get the word out about these activities, and hopefully inspired folks to learn more about the advantages of burning, why it’s done, and what the Alabama Wildlife & Freshwater Fisheries Division does to manage habitats for healthy wildlife populations. The bright hotness is our friend.”

Related:

Fire school is in session: Control burn trainees in Alabama learn to use fire as a tool

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