The Wooden Nutmeg

Going far outside of New England, I stumbled on this interesting article:

At old ranches and on some remaining farms near the foothills, one can see old barbed-wire-fence “pitch posts.” These relics of a bygone era artistically reveal some Colorado history and provide an interesting forestry lesson.

Pitch posts were cut and split from the dense and heavy wood of live pitchy trees. Pitch is a resin found in evergreen trees and it forms when trees are injured. When the injury is caused by heat from ground-surface, low-intensity forest fires, and the fire has not killed the tree, more sap is made. This resin then concentrates in outer layers of sap-wood.

Long ago, forest fires were started from lightning and often times by indigenous people. Native Americans knew that a flush of new and tender vegetation that sprouts after fire meant well-nourished game and thus better hunting. With no human effort to suppress forest fires, they were frequent, and trees were often injured by fire.

In those conditions, a “relatively young,” 150-year-old tree may have received fire damage three, four, five or more times in its lifetime. A living tree exposed to that many fires accumulates high concentrations of pitch all the way from its heartwood center out to the bark.

…

Back then, many forest fires persisted for months. These long-lasting fires took on a variety of day-to-day behavior, depending upon weather, terrain and fuel conditions in their path. Some fires smoldered underground for a long time as root fires, only to be rekindled with a strong, dry wind. Over centuries of time, subsequent fires affected miles and miles of forest, covering a wide range of aspects and elevations.

Archived here.

I found some interesting statements, below, in the 2005, “Rhode Island Forest Resources Management Plan,” archived here.

On changes to the forest:

As previously stated, forest cover in Rhode Island increased starting in the early 1800’s as abandoned farms reverted to forest. Continued farm abandonment, repeated clearing of forests for fuel, as well as forest fires kept a variety of age classes dispersed through Rhode Island’s landscape through the 1950’s. Since then, Rhode Island’s forest has matured, with 51 percent now in saw timber size class according to the most recent forest survey. The lack of young forest impacts species that need the unique nesting and feeding habitat that these early successional areas provide

And on preparedness:

13. Does RI have sufficient manpower, money, and resources to prevent or cope with a major forest fire?

The general consensus is that RI does not have the manpower, money, or resources to prevent or cope with a major forest fire.

Some observed problems are:

A. There is not enough manpower and it is perhaps not young enough for forest fire fighting within the rural volunteer fire companies.
B. There is insufficient training.
C. There are not enough vehicles and equipment.
D. Access roads into forests have been gated and allowed to become overgrown and inaccessible.
E. Due to insufficient manpower and funds, fire towers are no longer maintained and manned, except the very few remaining, during the most extreme fire danger periods.
F. There are more homes in or near forestlands and that increases the danger of fire and presents a higher risk of residential property damage, human injury, and loss of life.
G. There is a buildup of fuels on the ground and not all deep woods areas have water holes to supplement tanker trucks.

Some recommended solutions are:

A. More financial, technical, and material support, recruiting, training and equipping of rural
volunteer fire companies from town, State, and federal governments.
B. Development and distribution of a Comprehensive Mutual Aid Plan between volunteer and full-time fire departments, between towns, the State, including the RI National Guard, other states, and federal agencies. Chief David Shaw, of the Pascoag Fire Department, believes that the State Fire Chiefs Association is developing such a statewide plan that, in addition to fire, covers Emergency Medical Services and Hazardous Materials Response.
C. Providing manpower and resources for adequate resource management of private and State forestlands, and perhaps supervised, selective, timbering that could provide funds for forest management, clear fuel buildups, maintain water holes, and clear fire access roads into forests.
D. Creative ideas to keep fire towers open are to lease space on them to cell phone companies to hang their antennas and maintain them, or to rent the towers as overnight camp sights to hikers/campers.
E. Promote the passage of strict forest fire prevention laws, post them throughout forests, and enforce them.
F. Provide major forest fire prevention education, as in the “Smokey Bear” program in schools, through literature distribution, as part of general forestry education seminars, and through the media.
G. Encourage all persons, when traveling near or through forestlands, to carry cell phones and
report any evidence of forest fires immediately.

From today’s Telegram & Gazette:

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Voters reject funding; elect Becker, Briggs

RUTLAND —  Voters decisively rejected down all three money questions and re-elected incumbents in the town’s annual election yesterday.

Question 1, which sought a Proposition 2-1/2 override in the amount of $130,000 to fund the position of town administrator, failed 868-202.

Question 2, which sought an override in the amount of $525,000 in order to level-fund the municipal government services, also failed, 807-257.

Questions 3, which sought to exclude $2 million in debt for the ice storm cleanup costs from the levy limit also failed, 562-502.

Some quick and dirty statistics gathered from here (archive).

Major Fires:
1930 — 34,700 acres in R.I.
1942 — 24,500 acres in R.I.
1951 — Acreage not specified

The 1930 and 1942 fires started in Connecticut.  1942 burned about 14,000 acres on the Connecticut side; unsure at this time how many burned in 1930.  From personal recollection of stories heard but not confirmed yet by research the ’51 fire burned generally the area between the 1930 and 1942 fires.

1935 — 63% of R.I. forested
1938 — Hurricane, eventually 80 million board feet of lumber salvaged
1953 — 64% forested; 281 million board feet standing
1998 — 59% forested; 1,316 million board feet standing

On a bit less land, the volume of trees in Rhode Island expand four fold in 45 years.  What that speaks directly to is the lack of “maturity” in the woods of 1953, which relates to forest fires.  Immature woods are brushier and more prone to hot fires and younger trees are more prone to lethal injuries to their bark.  As the forests mature, they become less likely to burn and more resistant to the impact of what does burn.

There’s been two interesting things to come out of the Halifax news.

Halifax was struck by Hurricane Juan on 29 September 2003 with 100mph winds, with unofficial gusts to 145mph.

Hurricane intensity in northern waters

While hurricanes this far north tend to weaken their cyclonic wind speeds, they gain forward speed. This is a graphic of that effect from the 1938 Hurricane.(1)

We know historically the hurricanes are one of the major disturbances of forests, probably matched in the degree and geographic area only by ice storms.  Other severe disturbances like tornadoes, straight line winds, and microburts tend to affect much smaller geographic areas.

Here a few comments from 1938:

The combination of soggy ground, strong wind and the sail surface of a full complement of leaves proved too much and many shade and forest trees were broken or blown over by the hurricane. … Practically all older stands of white pine east of the Connecticut River were partially or completely destroyed.  Governor Wilbur Cross appointed committees to make recommendations dealing with Forest Fires, Timber Salvage and Forest Rehabilitation.  Austin Hawes, Hurricane Damaged Forests still a valuable state asset

The fire danger from the downed trees was regarded as a great peril.   The New England Forest Emergency Office was created by the U.S. Forest Serivce to coordinate the effort to mitigate the fire danger and salvage the lumber. United States Forest Service.  A pictorial report on the New England forest emergency project with notes on its operation.

The photo below is from the Harvard collection showing an untouched Pisgah Forest (NH) four years after the ’38 Hurricane, compared to salvaged forests in Petersham, MA and was retrieved from this site.  Keep in mind when reading their perspective (against salvage) that Pisgah and even Petersham are fairly high, cool areas that keep their snow covers later in the year then areas further south and east in New England, and at least with Pisgah are fairly isolated from homes and business.

1942 -- Aftermath of Hurricane of 1938

This is a contemporary report, from 70 miles east of Pisgah, in Lee, N.H. of the conditions of 1941 and looking forward to 1942:

FOREST FIRE WARDEN’S REPORT
The 1941 fire season was the worst on record in the State of New Hampshire.

More fires occurred, more 25 area was burned over, greater damage was done to our woodlands, higher losses were sustained in other real property burned and the cost of suppressing fires was greater.

There will, perhaps, never be more ideal conditions for fire than existed in 1941. A scarcity of rain left the forests in a highly inflammable condition. The accompanying high winds spread fires with almost light- ning rapidity through the parched forest lands. These conditions, coupled with human carelessness, made 1941 outstanding in the state’s forest fire record.

As we approach the 1942 fire season, we wonder just what may be in store for us. The woodlands are in as critical condition as they were last year, if not more so. Blown down trees still clutter sizable acreages of our woodland areas ; the increased tempo in lumbering operations due to war demands are each day adding to the fire hazard an ever increasing number of acres of slash land; and we face the coming fire season with greatly reduced personnel, due to the shifting of men from our small communities into the armed forces of the country and into defense industries.

If, however, everyone will be careful, if they will follow the rules and regulations laid out for the use of fire in and around woodlands, much of our difficulties will be eliminated — our fires kept few in number with a consequent saving of expense to town and state. There are so many possibilities for trouble this year it will require the whole-hearted and patriotic cooperation of everyone concerned if we are to avoid serious difficulties.

Persons hostile to the best interests of our country and subnormal individuals affected by the excitement of the times may easily cause tremendous confusion and disruption of local activities by deliberately starting fires in our woodlands. Suspicious circumstances connected with every fire should be made known to the proper authorities. Wardens and Deputies are being instructed this year to investigate all fires carefully. Parties at fault will be held strictly responsible. With our forces weakened, it becomes more necessary for everyone to comply with regulations which have been set up to govern the use of fire in our woodlands.

These are briefly as follows :

1. Secure a permit from your local forest fire warden to burn brush or other debris in or near woodlands, or where fire may be communicated to such lands, once the snow has left the ground. Violation of this requirement makes the responsible party liable.
a. To a fine not to exceed $500.00 or imprisonment of not more than one year or both.
b. To the town for expenses incurred by the warden in attending or extinguishing such fire.
c. For damage to abutting owners if fire runs upon abutters’ property.

2. DON’T drop or throw from any vehicle while same is upon a public highway or private way and DON’T drop, throw or otherwise deposit on or near woodlands any lighted match, cigar, cigarette, live ashes or any other substance liable to cause a fire. Violation of these prohibitions penalizes whoever is found guilty with a fine of not more than $25.00.

3. DON’T fail to promptly notify your local warden of any fires you see.

The 1941 fire record for Lee is as follows : Number of fires 12 Acreage burned 118 Cost of suppression . . . $757.40 No. of permits issued .

FRANK I. CALDWELL, Forest Fire Warden [, Lee, N.H.].
Retrieved 6 May 2009 from here.

Allowing a forest to “naturally” recover, and that’s a difficult word to define in a southern New England landscape where fire from man has played a role since the glaciers retreated, at the very least requires preparation and defense.  A single careless or deliberate spark in a pile of debris like the Pisgah picture above would ignite a long burning, intense fire that’s likely to seriously damage the organic matter in the soil below.  Good and sufficient fire breaks are needed to keep fires from the outside out, and keep intense fires on the inside from escaping.

Which brings us to this picture from Halifax, whih was taken at a fire which started, in the general the area were the big fire started the next day (archive).   These conditions certainly could be found among the worse of the December 2008 ice storm.

29 April 2009 Halifax Fire

That picture probably illustrates two of the keys in dealing with fires in the ice storm area — hoses and helicopters.  I suspect a third part would be bulldozers to quickly re-open forest roads if necessary.  In my town, in the wake of hurricanes or other severe wind events, we will use a front end loader in conjuction with chainsaws to quickly re-open roads for fire apparatus to pass.  On a major fire you may even see a need for dozers to actually build fire line to push dead brush back into the black.

There was another incident out of Halifax that’s good to keep in mind:

House being investigated for arson

…the investigation began after firefighters arrived at the house to battle the rapidly growing wildfire.

Firefighters realized there was a fire inside the house and “they saw stuff that made them believe that this was a suspicious fire,” he said.

“It didn’t take the investigator long to confirm that it was, indeed, suspicious.” Chronicle-Herald

A couple photos taken off of Marshal St., Leicester, MA on Worcester reservoir lands. This is near the Paxton town line.

If a pile like this is causing problems getting apparatus by it, or is throwing sparks over the flank you’re trying to make a fire line along, you’ll have to take the time to knock it down. During that time, the fire is extending in the woods.

December 2008 ice storm damage

Maybe Massachusetts should just lease a some more bulldozers for the next few seasons. How do you handle a brush fire burning in this mess on a dry, breezy day? It’s going to take a lot of hose work along with flanks to be sure.

December 2008 ice storm damage

Bulldozers and fire plows are not used much in New England compared to southern and western states.  The fires, terrain, and resources don’t tend to lend themselves to that style of firefighting.  Most landowners would throw a holy fit if you cut a fire line on their property with a bulldozer for our typical fires.

But they do exist. Massachusetts has one stationed in Plymouth, and Connecticut has one I believe out of Voluntown. Often, a relative term given the infrequent use, the dozers are tasked with constructing access roads to fires deep in the woods. For comparison, New Jersey runs some 20 dozers, most equipped with plows, while Maryland runs 19 dozer/plow units.

Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control bulldozer and fire plow

In addition to the structural engines, the forestry specific fire units in the area are:

Leicester currently runs three forestry units:
F1 — 2008 F-350 250gpm/225gwt/8foam
F2 — 2003 F-350 125/225
F3 — 2001 Freightliner 1250/1500/30

Paxton
F1 — 2006 F-550 250/300/10

Leicester, MA Forestry 3 (was F2 in this picture)

1 May 2006 was a day with Very High fire danger and Red Flag warnings across southern New England. Auburn, MA received a call at 10:42 for a brush fire. By the end of the afternoon 125 acres had burned, an abandoned mansion was lost, and aid from 38 towns and cities and 4 forest fire districts was required.

Approximately 80 acres of this area burned with enough intensity to kill / severely injure the canopy trees — this is highly unusual in southern New England in modern times.

Relative Humidity was low — 15-30% with northeast winds at 15mph gusting to 25mph. Showing how fast fire conditions can change in New England, only a week earlier heavy rains had crossed over southern New England, dumping between 1-1/2″ and 6″ of rain. The northeast winds portended the heavy rain that would move in on the morning of May second.

Since the fire this area was also on the edge of the December, 2008 ice storm. The impact was noticeable and would impact future operations but is not severe.

This is a map of the area from July, 2007 that shows the extensive severely burned area (the brown discolored areas). I’m eyeballing it to be about 80 acres, and the overall fire was put at 125 acres which I believe is reasonable — not all areas hit that stand killing intensity.

The fire appears to have originated south of this lane. The tree appears to have been snapped by the ice storm. A hang up like this one is a challenging one to cut safely, yet it also isn’t safe to allow forestry trucks to pass underneath — a situation that would delay access to fires along the lane in the future.

(There are smudges on the photos taken April 26, 2009 — I had water spots on my camera lens.)

Near the tail of the fire area was this tree, it’s main trunk killed by the extensive burning of it’s bark, which was “stump sprouting” new growth. Hundreds, probably thousands, of these small snags will stand for years to come, surrounded by the fine brush of regrowth.

This mountain laurel, judging from the standing dead trunk, was about 4′ tall when the fire burned. In areas the mountain laurel easily topped 6′. Like the snag in the previous picture, the dead trunk provides additional dry fuel that would intensify a future fire. Mountain laurel provided the fuel load that allowed the fire to be intense enough to kill the hardwood trees. You can read more about the fire ecology of mountain laurel here.

This is a mix of regrowing brush and some living and some fire killed overstory trees. When looking at these photos (click on them for the full size version) the tell tale sign of killed trees is the lack of the smallest branches — only the trunks and main branches remain.

A mix of living and dead trees. Approximately point “A” on the map. Fire potential here is elevated further by the lack of shade; while it may not be a critical difference in spring time this could contribute in summer and fall to the area being prone to larger, hotter fires then otherwise would occur. One of the big reasons for the decline in size and intensity of forest fires in southern New England is the success of previous generations in suppressing fires and allowing the forests to mature. While there are exceptions, in general the larger trees were more likely to survive while smaller trees were fatally injured by the flames.

More dead trees. Approximately point “B.” In the middle of the picture is the top of a white pine that broke off in the ice storm.

Many hardwood saplings coming up, I’m not sure what species these are — I should revisit later in the year when I can identify the leaves.

This is the first steep hillside — about a 30% grade. It’s also strewn with rocks, and soft soil — absolutely treacherous to walk over. The fire killed few if any trees on these steep slopes. My observation is there wasn’t much mountain laurel to provide dense amounts of fuel. From a tactical perspective, it would be near impossible to build a fire line through this mess and clambering over the terrain with an Indian Tank would be inviting a sprained ankle. Hose lines would work best, albeit slow to progress.

Looking towards the top of the hill you can see a mixture of killed trees and ice storm damage.

After a climb of 100′, we come to these flats (point “C” on the map), showing a mixture of fire and ice storm damage. The mountain laurel thickets started up again on the flats, providing the fuel for the stand killing intensity.

This picture is chilling to think of how quickly our forests could revert to this state by a combination of disturbances in quick succession — say a major hurricane followed by a few dry years and killing intensity fires burning through the slash. Like this patch, they would then be at increased risk for decades of additional fire disturbances until a mature forest can regrow.

At this point I intersected the woods road along which I took the photos in 2006. This is further west along that road, at point “D” on the map.

Looking through the woods you can see a steep rise — pushing 60% slope at parts — and then a flat area on top looking awful sparse. If you look at the map, that is the area of the most intense damage. My guess is the fire intensified from a combination of later in the day (more pre-heating), elevation (windier), and having a wider fire front. The destroyed mansion was located at the blue dot.

The woods road at this point passed through very tall, very dense mountain laurel — 6′ high or better judging from the dead trunks. Some trees had scorch marks and mushrooms growing in fire-killed bark 15′ above the ground.

The acronym LCES stands for Lookouts, Communication, Escape Routes, and Safety Zones. In this case a safety zone — ordinary hardwood duff, with it’s low, slow burning characteristics was only a hundred feet or so away in the hollow between this point at the steep hillside. However the mountain laurel looks like it would’ve been impenetrable to get there. It’s a place like this I fear seeing guys in structural bunker pants and ill fitting boots getting caught in southern New England, unable to move quickly enough down the trail to escape an oncoming fire.

Let’s review a few key pictures from the fire day itself. These were taken along the woods road at approximately point “E.” You can find more at my original write up here.

Yes, it burns! There was a small draw to the east of the road, so the fire had a uphill run to my location. I had gotten in here before I saw any firefighters or officers, so I’m not sure if they planned to make a stand here earlier or I just had good dumb luck in finding the spot.

Sturbridge working their forestry into location. This was a good location to make a stand — while you can see the higher mountain laurel in the background, between it and the fire picture above was much lower laurel — may 2′ high, probably a patch that burned years ago. They are cutting a hole in the brush to allow the unit to turn around so it can be headed out in case a quick retreat is needed. Additionally, a good safety zone is only a few dozen feet west of this location where the laurel suddenly ends and it is not so thick as to be able to be hard to move through.

Even if the picture is deceptive. We’re only on the edge of the thicket here.

Wildland gear is not standard issue in New England at this time. I honestly prefer the guy in a T-shirt, jeans, and workboots over having someone in completely inappropriate structural PPE on a woods fire — they are far more likely to seriously injure themselves from exhaustion or a fall due to wearing that gear then the guy in jeans, tee, and good boots is to burn himself. The guy wearing the good wildland guy isn’t a state guy either — it’s very unusual to see that level of complete wildland PPE on a municipal firefighter here, at best you usually see just a wildland shirt with jeans.

There is another crew working in from the railroad tracks who directly attacked the flank with a hoseline working up from the railroad tracks to the woods road (one the right or east side). One of these lines would be used to protect the Sturbridge’s position in case the fire got over the lines being made, and the other hose would be used to work a line to the left (west) of the road.

A well dressed firefighter making short work of the burning laurel. That’s an 1-1/8″ Massachusetts forestry hose line. From this point they started working the fire to the left, burning mostly in duff from here up the steep hill.

Later on, Sturbridge’s location quite safe, the crew moved from protecting it to stretching another line through the hollow to hellp with mop-up on top of the hill.

This picture shows the rather sparse laurel at this point and how easy it would be to get from the road to a safe area. This, I don’t believe, was true at point “D” as I mentioned above, where there was still a lot of thick laurel between the road and a safe zone.

I like the easy to carry bundles if you carry your hose that way. Give me a backpack though and I’d be happier.

Water supply for this area was established by Oxford laying in a 4000′ 5″ line with their reel truck. I don’t know if it was a consideration in the decision to lay a line, but by this point tankers were being used to support operations in residential areas threatened by the head of the fire.

Today’s Worcester Telegram & Gazette has a very well done article (archive) discussing the potential impact on forest fires of the December ice storm.

David Celino, the state’s chief forest fire warden, said weather is the key factor and changes from week to week, citing a recent seven-day span when very dry air, a steady breeze and dry fuel on the ground created optimum brush fire conditions.

What makes this spring’s brush fire season, and those for the next several years, unusual is the tree damage from the ice storm.

Mr. Celino acknowledged the dual challenge of safety and logistics.

“There is the obvious issue of trying to walk through woods over downed limbs to reach a fire. And there’s the other issue of broken-off limbs that are weakened and hanging that could come down at any time, causing injury, he said.

“Next fall, next spring, the fall of 2010, that’s when the ice storm damage begins to pose a fuel issue, as the broken limbs, that are now still green, dry out and add to the problem of fuel on the forest floor,” he said.

Ashburnham Fire Chief Paul J. Zbikowski said his department has been fortunate so far, in that there haven’t been any brush fire calls “too deep into the woods.”

“The reports I’ve been getting are that what we see along the edge of the roads is nothing compared to what we’d be likely to encounter in the deep woods, say in the state forest. There is debris everywhere on the ground, and entire areas are impassable,” he said

“One of our priorities is to get our dirt fire roads opened and passable as quickly as possible. That at least gets us closer to the fire. Once we get off the road and into the woods, we’re trying to navigate around downed limbs and trees while carrying 5 gallons of water in a backpack pump,” Chief Zbikowski said.

I’ve already touched on this specific topic, organized under Disturbances, Ice Storm.

Maybe my faith they would clean up the ice storm debris in short order was misplaced:

Debris removal given short shrift by voters

By Richard J. Hafey CORRESPONDENT

PAXTON
Voters last night rejected borrowing $1.5 million for costs of the December
ice storm, a move that Selectman Frederick G. Goodrich said could mean shutting
down all non-essential services such as the library, recreation programs and the
Council on Aging. 

In addition, said Mr. Goodrich, chairman of the selectmen, it could mean significant
cuts in the police, fire and Department of Public Works budgets, which have already
suffered cuts in an attempt to balance the budget. 

About 15 people spoke on the article, some of them opposed, others with suggestions
of other ways to handle the debris, such as homeowners doing it themselves. 

The vote, which required a two-thirds majority, was 77- 71 in favor. The only other
article, calling for the transfer of $20,000 from available funds in the water enterprise
fund to continue an engineering study to determine the feasibility of developing a
town-owned water supply at Asnebumskit Reservoir, passed easily without debate. 

The $1.5 million represents an estimate by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after
the storm. The town was expecting 75 percent reimbursement from FEMA and 25 percent from
the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency; Town Manager Charles T. Blanchard said
last night the latter was in question because of the state’s financial situation. 

The town has already spent $706,238 in its emergency response to the ice storm. That was
for clearing public ways, and collection of 50,522 cubic yards of trees, limbs and branches
now stored at temporary sites at Klingele Fields and the West Street playground. That
$706,238 represents further cuts that must be made in the budget.

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.

I found these pictures online recently that portray the very most common forest fire we find in southern New England today — a low, relatively slow fire burning leaf litter along the forest floor.  These fires are ideally suited to the six man hand tool team.

Greenfield, MA 23 April 2008

Middlebury, CT 18 April 2008

The biggest risk with fires in this terrain and fuel is they are so common complacency sets in, and that will likely lead to injuries or deaths in the future when there is a failure to recognize much more hazardous situations when it is encountered.  Click for more information on the Greenfield or Middlebury fires.

Even forests that have remained stable for decades can change in character overnight.

In December, 2008 a major ice storm impacted much of New England particularly the Berkshire Hills, north Central Massachusetts, and Southern New Hampshire.  Note in the above photos the minimal amount of fuel in the form of small branches, logs, and such other then the leaves.  Contrast that to the photos below taken in Paxton, MA area in the wake of the ice storm — for the next several years they will be facing a much higher fuel load on the forest floor until the debris rots, it will be much more labor intensive to access the fires and then construct fire lines and overhaul hot spots.  With the tree canopy shattered, the sunlight will encourage brushy thickets to grow up and many of the trees will die becoming punky snags which will need to be cut down if they catch on fire.

Woods road entering reservoir lands for the City of Worcester.

Ice storm damage, Paxton, MA March 2009

While not impossible for a team with Indian Tanks, rakes, and brooms to construct a fire line through, clearly they would have much more intense work to do.  More water — from hoses — will be needed to extinguish the extent of burning debris so sparks later don’t fly over fire lines, and power tools like chainsaws will save much labor in constructing those lines.  No matter what the preference in tools and tactics the areas hit hard by the ice storms will spend a lot more labor and time controlling fires over the next few years until the forests mature once again.

Historically New England has experienced severe forest fire problems in years following major disturbances by hurricanes and ice storms, and there’s no reason to not expect it to occur again in the wake of this storm.