The Wooden Nutmeg

The most famous of all these paths was the one known as the Bay Path. It was in existence in 1673, and doubtless before. It left the Old Connecticut Path at Wayland, Massachusetts, and ran through Marlborough to Worcester, then to Oxford, Charlton, and Brookfield, where jutted off the Hadley Path, to Ware, Belchertown, and Hadley, while the Bay Path rejoined the Old Connecticut Path and thus on to Springfield. Holland wrote of the Bay Path in his novel of that title: -

“It was marked by trees a portion of the distance and by slight clearings of brush and thicket for the remainder. No stream was bridged, no hill was graded, and no marsh drained. The path led through woods which bore the mark of centuries, over barren hills which had been licked by the Indian hounds of fire, and along the banks of streams that the seine had never dragged, A powerful interest was attached to the Bay Path. It was the channel through which laws were communicated, through which flowed news from distant friends, and through which came long, loving letters and messages. That rough thread of soil, chipped by the blades of a hundred streams, was a trail that radiated at each terminus into a thousand fibres of love, and interest, and hope, and memory. Every rod had been prayed over by friends on the journey and friends at home.”

STAGECOACH and TAVERN DAYS
Alice Morse Earle, MacMillan, New York — 1900.
CHAPTER X. FROM PATH TO TURNPIKE

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/other/ABL/etext/stagetavern/chp10.html

Photo essay from the Wood River Valley area: http://d90.us/wooden_nutmeg/essays/Arcadia_2010/

A really great write up of managing fire in New England Pine Barrens, archive here.

In addition to those “natural community” issues, few active firefighters have seen truly severe fire conditions in New England.

Although rainfall alone doesn’t dictate fire danger (frequency of rain is likely much more important in New England in keeping fire danger to “high” or below), the following graphs show a very sharp difference between pre-1970 and post-1970 climate. You can get more data for different regions of the New England states here.

I strongly suspect that it is not coincidence that we haven’t had a serious forest fire problem in southern New England since the early 1960s. Before, roughly, 1970 we used to experience a deep drought about every ten years. Nothing since 1970 has matched those 10 year droughts.

Also I’m still researching the frequency rain events. Rain tends to “reset” the fire danger.

Let’s assume a cycle like this; while conjecture it’s not an unreasonable cycle based on my observations over the years:
Day 1: Rain (Low danger)
Day 2: Moderate
Day 3: High
Day 4: High
Day 5: High
Day 6: High
Day 7: Very High
Day 8: Very High
Day 9: Very High
Day 10: Rain (Low)

Now add in one overnight rain:
Day 1: Rain (Low danger)
Day 2: Moderate
Day 3: High
Day 4: High
Day 5: Rain overnight (moderate)
Day 6: Moderate
Day 7: High
Day 8: High
Day 9: High
Day 10: Rain (Low)

Most people wouldn’t notice a major impact from an extra shower or two in April, but it could be having a very large impact on fire danger.

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.

One of the best articles I’ve read on the use of prescribed fire on Cape Cod’s Pitch Pine & Scrub Oak Barrens: Bringing Back the Burn from the July 2005 issue of Northern Sky News. Archived here.

The publication, “Natural Communities of Rhode Island,” archived here, contains some of the best written definitions of southern New England’s natural communities that I have seen.

Let’s put their text together with some of my photos:

Pine Barren, Nicholas Farm Management Area, Coventry RI (Photo taken April, 2010)

2. Pitch Pine / Scrub Oak Barrens. Woodland community typically found on well-drained
sandy soils of outwash plains. Pitch pine (Pinus rigida) is the dominant tree varying from 25
to 60% cover, and the shrub layer is dominated by scrub oaks (Quercus ilicifolia and Q.
prinoides), often forming dense thickets. The low shrub canopy typically includes sweetfern
(Comptonia peregrina), late lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium), and black
huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata). Sandy openings within the woodland may be sparsely
vegetated with lichens and mosses, and may also include patches of bearberry
(Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), heather (Hudsonia ericoides and H. tomentosa), and wild indigo
(Baptisia tinctoria). Early sedge (Carex pensylvanica) is typically found in the understory,
and other herbs present may include goat’s-rue (Tephrosia virginiana), sickle-leaved golden
aster (Pityopsis falcata), and wild lupine (Pityopsis falcata). Fauna of this community
includes Alleghany mound ant (Formica exsectoides) and lepidoptera (moths and butterflies)
such as buck moth (Hemileuca maia), frosted elfin (Incisalia irus), and hoary elfin (Incisalia
polios) that are dependent on specific food plants that occur in this habitat (e.g., scrub oak,
wild lupine, wild indigo). This community is typically maintained by periodic wildfire which
reduces competing woody species and stimulates (but is not required for) reproduction of
pitch pine.
Dist: Washington and Kent Counties.
Examples: Nicholas Farm, Coventry; Arcadia Management Area, Exeter.

467 Providence Pike, Hampton, CT 7 April 2010. Fire burning below a rocky cliff, with a wetland towards the rear.

8. Hemlock – Hardwood Forest. A mixed coniferous/deciduous forest that typically occurs on
middle to lower slopes of ravines, on cool mid-elevation slopes, and moist uplands on the
edge of swamps. Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) is a co-dominant in the canopy with the
following: American beech (Fagus grandifolia), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), red maple
(Acer rubrum), black cherry (Prunus serotina), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), black
birch (B. lenta), and red oak (Quercus rubra). Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera) may also
be present. The relative cover of hemlock is highly variable, ranging from nearly pure stands
to as little as 20% of the canopy. In closed canopy stands the shrub and herb layers are
sparsely vegetated. Characteristic plants in the understory include cucumber root (Medeola
virginiana), Canada mayflower (Maianthemum canadense), shining clubmoss (Lycopodium
lucidulum), starflower (Trientalis borealis), bellwort (Uvularia sessilifolia), common wood-
sorrel (Oxalis acetosella), partridgeberry (Mitchella repens), and painted trillium (Trillium
undulatum). Some examples of this community have been severely impacted by hemlock
woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae), a non-native insect pest, that weakens or kills hemlocks.
Dist: Throughout Rhode Island.
Example: Durfee Hill Management Area, Glocester; Beach Pond, Exeter.

I need to go through my photo collection and do some more matching