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CARBON COUNTY &#8212; Officials say smoky conditions in the Wyoming Valley Thursday were caused by a large controlled burn by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.Rich Biggs, a wildlife conservation officer for the game commission, explained the controlled burn took place at State Game Lands 141, otherwise known as Broad Mountain, in Packer Township.Briggs said 40 personnel were on hand to conduct the burn of 1,600 acres. Briggs said the primary goal of the operation was to &#8220;restart the clock&#8221; on the habitat of the area. He said several elements of that habitat, which include blueberry bushes, scrub oak and pitch pine trees, were at the end of their life cycle.Without fire, they would have been replaced with less-desirable habitat elements.&#8220;Some of them, they won&#8217;t even die,&#8221; Briggs said referring to the habitat. &#8220;They&#8217;ve adapted to fire.&#8221;Biggs also said the controlled burn helped to remove downed trees and leaflets that would be harder to extinguish in wildfires, as well as provide an opportunity to train personnel for actual wildfires.Biggs said the operation went &#8220;relatively smoothly&#8221; given the size of the fire, and officials left at 7 p.m. He added that smoke was still resonating from the scene when crews left, as well as into Friday morning, but rainfall would help to eliminate it entirely.Biggs said the planning for the fire stretches back into 2014.&#8220;This is not something we thought of last week,&#8221; he said, adding notifications were sent out and it takes several weeks of planning to make such a large burn happen.A helicopter was also used to help ignite the flame in the central part of the target area while game commission personnel focused on the outskirts.Another fireCrews were also dispatched to battle a blaze in Hazle Township.Chris Layaou, a fire forester for the Pinchot Forest District, said there was a fire near the Rails to Trails area between Ashmore and Stockton roads.&#8220;At this time, the fire is out,&#8221; Layaou said. He added it was fully contained and extinguished sometime overnight, but officials are still on the scene to make sure it doesn&#8217;t reignite.Layaou also said while the fire put off a lot of smoke, it dissipated quickly, and smoke seen in the Wyoming Valley was most likely caused by the controlled burn.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Travis Kellartkellar@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Travis Kellar at 570-991-6389 or on Twitter @TLNews</shirttailMeta></div>

Officials: Smoke seen in the Wyoming Valley caused by controlled burn in Carbon County