The Wooden Nutmeg

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.

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.