Repetition?
George Santayna once stated, “Those who can not remember the past are condemned to to repeat it.”
Driving through the sections of Massachusetts hit by the December 2008 ice storm, with lawn after lawn stacked with brush by the side of the road awaiting chipping, I thought about that statement.
Slash is controlled by many states. In Massachusetts a primary statute is:
Chapter 48: Section 16A. Handling of slash Section 16A. Every owner, lessee, tenant or occupant of lands, or their agents or employees, or any such person or entity holding rights or interest in said lands or the timber thereon, or of any rights or interests therein, except electric, telephone and telegraph companies, who cuts or permits the cutting of brush, wood or timber on lands which border upon woodland of another, or upon a highway or railroad location, shall dispose of the slash caused by such cutting in such a manner that the same will not remain on the ground within forty feet of any woodland of another, or of any railroad location, or within one hundred feet from the center of any highway, and all slash resulting from such cutting operations shall be cut and scattered in such a manner as to minimize the danger from fire. Wherever multiple highway systems exist adjacent to cuttings, no slash shall be permitted within one hundred feet from the outer edge of the highway. No slash shall be permitted within twenty-five feet of any brook, stream, pond, river or water supply.
There are miles of roadway in the affected towns looking like this:
Slash stacked along a roadway, Paxton, MA
Clearly the old lessons of 25′, 40′, and 100′ restrictions are being widely violated. This is likely not going to be a problem, since most towns are planning to come along and chip and remove the brush this year as federal aid comes in to hire contractors.
It remind us of a time when slash was piled up frequently, and in some ways sources of ignition were more common — discarded cigarettes, sparks from machines. Having slash near the roads made ignition more likely, and when piles did burn having them near woods meant they were more likely to extend, or near brooks to throw sparks across those natural fire breaks.
Today slash from large logging operations is often chipped and removed to wood-to-energy plants. When left in the woods, it is cut into smaller pieces and dispersed to encourage it to be in contact with the ground to increase it’s moisture content and encourage faster decomposition. In the past piles of slash stacked and well dried could take a small duff fire and greatly increase it’s intensity and destruction.
Yet, I still wonder about the impact should a severe fire season occur what the impact of these modern day slash piles by the roads would be.
