UPDATE, 1:05 p.m.: Beachgrass it is! Commenter Ingit wins.

Andrew Goff files the following video report from the fiery scene. Speaking is Tim Jones, fire management officer for the BLM in Arcata.

And the following is a press release from the BLM that we probably should have thought to hunt down in the first place:

The Bureau of Land Management plans to burn piles of invasive beach grass at the Mike Thompson Wildlife Area, South Spit Humboldt Bay, on Friday, May 2, in a project designed to improve habitat conditions and train fire investigators. The burn will be conducted only if weather conditions allow for safe and successful burning.

Firefighters from CAL FIRE, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Six Rivers National Forest will participate.

During the week of May 5, students in an interagency fire cause and investigation class will use the area for exercises focused on determining where and how fires started. CAL FIRE and the Six Rivers National Forest are putting on the course.

Crews from the California Conservation Corps helped the BLM pull and pile the beach grass in projects to improve beach dune habitat. Controlling invasive weeds such as European beach grass improves conditions for the endangered Humboldt Bay wallflower and the western snowy plover, a threatened shorebird. 

The prescribed burn will be conducted under a strict weather prescription detailed in a prescribed fire burn plan.   The BLM will conduct all burning under approved conditions permitted by the North Coast Air Quality Management District.

For more information, contact BLM Fire Management Officer Tim Jones, (707) 498-7623.

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Multiple people have contacted KHUM radio and your Lost Coast Outpost about the huge plume of smoke rising up from the South Jetty.

The Outpost’s Andrew Goff drove out to take a look. What he found, in addition to the above picture, is the following sign at the entrance to the jetty that reads: “Prescribed Fire — Do Not Report.”

Then, just a couple of moments ago, someone on the scanner said that they’ll be wrapping up out there in the next 45 minutes or so.