Prescribed fire, or managed fire, can benefit a forest by recycling nutrients for plant growth, controlling the buildup of understory or litter, and preparing bare soils for seed germination, while unchecked wildfires can destroy forests and property. The Liberty Hill Fire Tower was built to protect a forest planted many years earlier by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the USDA Forest Service, and it helped detect wildfires that could have destroyed it. The tower was in use from 1955 to 1969, when the Sam Houston National Forest shifted to using airplanes for wildfire detection, and it is the last remaining fire tower on the National Forests and Grasslands in Texas.