Plans shape up to deal with post-storms fire threat
Emergency traffic paths cleared

By Bradford L. Miner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

State Forest Fire Warden David V. Celino checks cleared fire roads yesterday in Brimfield State Forest near the tornado blow-down area.
(T&G Staff/BRADFORD L. MINER)
» Enlarge photo
Four weather disasters in seven months — a tornado, two tropical storms and a late fall snowstorm — has left much of Central Massachusetts looking like one industrial-strength brush pile.

From main highways and back roads throughout the region still sidelined with debris to significantly larger than usual brush piles in backyards, everyone from individuals to state agencies is asking, “What do we do with it?”

And some, like David V. Celino, state forest fire warden for the Department of Conservation and Recreation, are already looking ahead to the threat represented by branches, limbs and whole trees on the ground come spring and the 2012 forest fire season.

At Brimfield State Forest, hardest hit of the DCR properties from the weather events, Mr. Celino this week checked the work done by Mayer Tree Service during the month of September, clearing roads, fire lanes, hiking trails, the day use area and the administrative complex.

Given that unusual weather contributed to an unprecedented amount of fuel on the ground, Mr. Celino said it will be weather this winter and throughout the coming spring that ultimately determines the severity and duration of the forest fire season.

He said he was pleased to see even just a dusting of snow on the ground, saying that dead vegetation on the ground will have had ample time to dry out or “cure,” by March or April, unless it’s been sitting beneath a foot or more of snow for most of the winter.

“The weather has been like a double-edged sword,” he said, citing on one hand the extraordinary amount of damage to the state’s forests, and on the other, the day-to-day wetter than usual weather throughout the fall.

“Fortunately, that has slowed the curing process for all of the fuel on the ground since the tornado,” he said.

The chief fire warden said the monthlong effort by Mayer Tree Service of Essex had improved access to any wildlands fire in the state forest for brush firetrucks and other fire apparatus, but mounting a direct attack on any fire even a hundred yards off any of the fire roads presented a tactical challenge because the better part of a thousand acres was still inaccessible.

“We’re looking at a situation where we might have to rely on an aerial attack, using helicopters, drawing from the closest water source here. Otherwise, we have a fire bulldozer that could be deployed here as well, if necessary,” he said.

According to Peter Church, director of Forest Stewardship for DCR, the tree service cleared the primary roads and unimproved fire lanes, many of the trails, the day use area and the administrative office and garage complex.

Mr. Church said while the DCR was still assessing damage to parks and forests across the state from the subsequent storms, dealing with the tornado damage at Brimfield had been a priority.

The fire warden said even with improved access, speed would be critical, mounting an initial attack, even in the more remote areas, as quickly as possible to control the spread of any fire.

Mr. Celino said many of the state forests and parks, particularly in the Holyoke Range still have blocked roads and trails from the Oct. 29 snowstorm, but that is not as critical as the tornado blow-down areas that have a five-month head start in drying over the limbs and trees brought down by the snowstorm.

“If we have an open winter, with little or no snow cover and warmer than usual temperatures will be problematic, going into brush fire season with drier than usual conditions in the forests and blow-down areas,” he said.

Given that many brush fires each spring originate as out-of-control brush pile fires, Mr. Celino’s advice to homeowners is simple: “Don’t wait.”

He said open burning season begins Jan. 15 and recommended that brush piles be covered until then with a tarp to keep them dry enough to burn.

“The first occasion after the 15th when there’s little or no wind and at least a few inches of snow on the ground, that’s when as much brush as possible should be burned. Waiting until the end of the brush burning season in April is just asking for trouble,” he said.

As a proactive measure, Mr. Celino said between now and the start of brush fire season he and his Forest Fire Control crew would be having training sessions for fire departments in Brimfield, Monson, Sturbridge and Southbridge, and other communities to the west having been hit by the tornado to provide skills in tackling a wildlands fire which would likely be more intense than an average brush fire where the amount of fuel on the ground is much less.

Mr. Church called the amount of storm damage to DCR properties as unprecedented.

Nonetheless, he said, it was immediately apparent there was a public safety component to the blocked roads, fire lanes, and trails, as well as the day use and headquarters areas that would have to be addressed.

Mr. Church said DCR’s safety concern was twofold — a brush fire in central area of the blow-down as well as any fire on the perimeter of the state property that threatened private homes.

“We started in September and cleared all the fire roads, hiking trails, the day use area and the area around the administration building.” He said the work took about a month. The second phase will consider the homes abutting the DCR boundaries and whether establishing a fire break would be necessary to address the amount of fuel on the ground. There are a number of private properties on Dearth Hill Road, that are like pockets within the park, and we’ll be doing an assessment of those sites within the next couple of months to see if more clearing is warranted.

The cost of the Brimfield forest cleanup was $140,000.

He said DCR foresters would do an assessment of the blow-down area to determine if any of it had salvage value to offset the cost to date of the cleanup.

Edward M. Lambert Jr., DCR commissioner said, “DCR is deeply committed to the rehabilitation of its forests and parks following a year of intense weather and extensive damage to these well-loved spaces.”

“That said, following the most recent storm in October, our first concern was assisting cities, towns and locals in removing dangerous downed trees and materials to clear the way for utility and emergency workers to get residents back online and safe in their homes and communities. With that work mostly complete, DCR refocused its staff, equipment and energy on reopening and rehabilitating our parks and forests,” the commissioner said.

Mr. Lambert said agency personnel, hikers and avid outdoors people, shared the public’s eagerness to get back to the parks; but as stewards, DCR had an obligation to be sure it is safe for visitors before we reopen.”

http://www.telegram.com/article/20111210/NEWS/112109881/1101/local

Group wants bids on wood cleanup

By Bradford L. Miner TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The Massachusetts Wood Producers Association wants the state to put thousands of acres of forest damaged by the June 1 tornado, the two tropical storms and the Oct. 29 snowstorm up for salvage bid.

Jeff Poirier, president of the group representing loggers, foresters, sawmill operators, firewood dealers and landowners, has asked Richard K. Sullivan Jr., secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, to move beyond the cleanup efforts to date that have focused on public safety.

“The Commonwealth has not responded to its forest stewardship responsibility to salvage forest products or conduct meaningful forest restoration,” Mr. Poirier stated in a letter to the EEA secretary.

Mr. Poirier said the association is concerned that the state’s lack of action increases the risk of forest fires at the same time reducing potential benefits to the local economy and revenue to communities from the Forest Products Trust Fund.

“Thousands of acres of off-road, interior damage remain at a time when impacted cities and towns are most in need of the added revenue salvage operations would bring as well as the cleanup essential for tourist recreational activities,” the letter stated.

Critical of the state’s revised policies on forest management on state land, Mr. Poirier said the forest and woods products industry has been adversely affected by the combination of the poor economy and the state’s moratorium on logging properties managed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, including the Quabbin, Ware River and Wachusett watersheds.

“The Massachusetts Wood Producers Association is very concerned that as months pass by without initiating a serious forest restoration effort, the opportunity to salvage forest products economically is decreasing dramatically due to forest insects, diseases, and diminished quality of the timber,” Mr. Poirier said.

He said it was counterproductive for state agencies to pay tree service companies to remove damaged timber when the state could be making money by putting out bids and awarding contracts.

“This is a great opportunity for the public to experience and appreciate the value and skill of our forest-based economy, significantly damaged by the recent turmoil and visioning process,” Mr. Poirier said.

http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20111210%2FNEWS%2F112109968%2F1101%2Flocal

Found this series tonight; first one is cutting a spring pole:

However, that style looks a bit facacta to me. Hey, we have a fire, let’s cut this little notch and wait and hope we cut it enough and we won’t have to come in and make a deeper cut. I prefer shaving diagonally from the outside; for lack of a better word “Game of Logging” style though I’m sure they didn’t invent it:

Driving on Route 169 the following Sunday, I think I saw every.single.patrol.truck that Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control owns. There was no good, close place for me to pull over for photo I will need to find that article — it was reported they were working to clean up a debris-clogged stream so it would cause flooding into homes should a rainstorm hit.

Article from today’s T&G:

SOUTHBRIDGE — Difficult to imagine, but the June 1 tornado that turned lives upside down here with winds approaching 200 miles per hour, has an upside.

For the majority of plant and animal species and the state biologists, foresters and naturalists who study them, the tornado’s path across 50 acres of the McKinstry Brook Wildlife Management Area, off Pleasant Street, is a dramatic example of instant habitat diversity – the very thing the state’s wildlife agency strives for on its properties.

John J. Scanlon, forester project leader for the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, said the uprooted and snapped off red oaks and white pines present a living laboratory in which the rapid succession of plant and animal species can be studied.

“Public site visits usually include a walking tour, stopping at points of interest along the way. We’ll get folks as close as possible to the tornado impact area and contrast the disturbed forest habitat with the undamaged forest of mature white pines and mixed hardwoods to the north and south of the tornado’s track,” he said.

William J. Davis, Central Wildlife District supervisor, said he was amazed at the initial look at damage with Mr. Scanlon and Brandon Kibbe, Division of Fisheries and Wildlife land acquisition agent.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. Literally we crawled and climbed to get under, over or around the downed trees and debris,” Mr. Davis said.

“This certainly lays the groundwork for a most interesting site visit we’ve planned for the public in October where John will be talking about the forest response to this dramatic disturbance,” he added

Mr. Davis said the forest project leader has contacted the U.S. Forest Service and Harvard Forest, where dramatic disturbances have been replicated.

“I would think the only likely intervention on our part would be to reduce the risk of wildfire,” he said of Mr. Scanlon’s contact with the Department of Conservation and Recreation fire warden.

“From a human perspective, the tornado was a destructive, life-altering event. But from a wildlife perspective, it creates some tremendously valuable habitat,” Mr. Scanlon said.

He said a more widespread example of a natural disturbance making small changes in habitat would be the ice storm of December 2008.

“It caused nowhere near the damage of the tornado, but it did thin out the forest canopy, allowing more sunlight to reach the forest floor. Add to the equation two consecutive years of very successful acorn production and what you have today is an abundance of red oak seedlings,” Mr. Scanlon said.

Oak seedlings typically don’t thrive in the near constant shade of trees that, in this instance, are 70 years old. But since the storm, with nothing blocking sunlight, we expect a thick cover of raspberries, oak seedlings, along with black birch, red maple, and white pine seedlings all vying for dominance, creating a canopy over the downed trees in as little as 3 to 5 years, he said.

“The standing, snapped-off tree trunks provide a perfect habitat for cavity-nesting birds – woodpeckers, some owls, chickadees, nuthatches, swallows and bluebirds. Beyond that, in the disturbed area we would expect to see an increase in shrub land birds, like the chestnut-sided warbler, prairie warbler, brown thrasher, Eastern towhee – all species that benefit from the new forest growth.

“Of course in any scenario there are winners and losers, and the losers in this case would be the forest-nesting birds, such as the ovenbird, wood thrush, tanagers and many of the warblers that thrive beneath a mature forest canopy,” the forester said.

Mr. Scanlon said the tornado swath through the wildlife management area ranged from 500 to 1,000 feet wide, and is bordered to the north and south by the same mixed pine and hardwood forest.

As for the larger mammals, the forester said white-tailed deer would have no trouble navigating the tornado area.

He said a study last winter during deep snow conditions found that deer were seeking out south-facing areas as well as the shelter of trees blown over, providing cover against the wind.

The most common den site for black bear in Massachusetts, Mr. Scanlon said, is a brush pile. Again, he added, the amount of vegetation on the ground over the 50 or so acres will be very attractive to black bear.

Despite the human tragedy and sense of loss in the wake of the tornado, the outlook for wildlife along the 39-mile track of the storm is positive.

While the tornado damage has resulted in stream blockage in some areas, Mr. Scanlon said he and others doing an initial survey were struck by the lack of impact on McKinstry Brook.

“The day of our visit, the brook was flowing clean, clear, unobstructed and looking down from trees that came down across the brook we could see what appeared to be brook trout. The trees falling across and straddling the brook for the most part are suspended over it, with very little debris in the stream itself. For brook trout, the conditions seem to be ideal, at least for the time being.”

Mr. Scanlon said the agency’s plan is not to conduct any timber salvage at the site, because of the high value of altered habitat.

The Division of Fisheries and Wildlife had planned a site visit for Aug. 11 but, given the continuing cleanup and recovery efforts on adjoining private property, has delayed the field trip until October.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20110722/NEWS/107229802/1116

He said a more widespread example of a natural disturbance making small changes in habitat would be the ice storm of December 2008.

“It caused nowhere near the damage of the tornado, but it did thin out the forest canopy, allowing more sunlight to reach the forest floor. Add to the equation two consecutive years of very successful acorn production and what you have today is an abundance of red oak seedlings,” Mr. Scanlon said.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20110722/NEWS/107229802/1116

Oaks are well known for holding onto their leaves through winter and into the following spring — so these seedlings will contribute to elevated fire danger for several years to come, providing tinder fuels in the form of their dry leaves off the ground.

May 8: MODERATE Entire state is now at Stage 2 vegetation (transition).
May 9: HIGH
May 10: HIGH
May 11: HIGH Cloudy, dry, & windy day

This year I recorded 3′ of snow on the ground at one point — extraordinary! Over a thousand — and probably thousands — of roofs collapsed in Connecticut and Massachusetts this winter. While many were smaller and older outbuildings, there were also scores of houses and commercial buildings. Many pole barns came down, and even a 300,000 s.f. 15 year old steel frame building in Windsor.

So there hasn’t been much to reignite my interest this year, though I’ve been recording the fire danger each day (hopefully by next year I’ll automate the page scraping to post here instead of just emailing me, and include the National Weather Service information too).

If there was ever a spring you wanted to get burn permits, this was it!

From CT DEP’s website:
Mar 27: HIGH
Mar 28: HIGH
Mar 29: HIGH
Mar 30: HIGH
Mar 31: MODERATE
Apr 1: LOW
Apr 2: MODERATE
Apr 3: HIGH
Apr 4: LOW
Apr 5: LOW
Apr 6: MODERATE
Apr 7: MODERATE
Apr 8: MODERATE
Apr 9: MODERATE
Apr 10: MODERATE
Apr 11: MODERATE
Apr 12: MODERATE
Apr 13: LOW
Apr 14: LOW
Apr 15: Missed it
Apr 16: MODERATE
Apr 17: LOW
Apr 18: MODERATE
Apr 19: LOW
Apr 20: LOW
Apr 21: VERY HIGH Wind advisory: NW wind gusts 30 to 40 mph this afternoon
Apr 22: HIGH
Apr 23: LOW
Apr 24: LOW
Apr 25: LOW
Apr 26: LOW
Apr 27: LOW
Apr 28: LOW
Apr 29: MODERATE
Apr 30: HIGH
May 1: MODERATE
May 2: MODERATE
May 3: MODERATE
May 4: LOW
May 5: MODERATE
May 6: HIGH
May 7: MODERATE

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

A mostly unremarkable fire season here this year — after having a snow pack exceeding 3′ this winter (and hundreds if not thousands of building collapses in Connecticut), and fairly regular spring rains. It’s April 5th and I’m still finding pockets of snow on the ground in my town.

Last week Kent, CT lost a fire engine at a grass fire when the transmission hung up between road and pump.

National Weather Service is calling for a “Red Flag Warning” for all but Litchfield County. This is due to wind and very low humidity with lack of recent rainfall.