Opinion: Disaster lurks in Flanders pine barrens while politicians do nothing

The ongoing danger in the Flanders pine barrens defies logical explanation. Reducing the danger is simple and relatively cheap. Yet it continues unchecked, putting hundreds of homes and human life, including the lives of volunteer firefighters who rush into burning wildfires in order to save lives and property, at grave risk.

The government owners and stewards of the preserved public lands in Flanders have done and continue to do nothing to alleviate the danger, though they are fully aware of its severity and extent and though they are charged, first and foremost, with protecting public health, safety and welfare.

Why? It’s an age-old story. Politicians are more interested in looking good, pleasing campaign donors and seeming like they’re doing something than they are interested in actually doing something. They are interested in preserving their own backsides and getting re-elected more than anything else and will do and say just about anything to achieve that. Bureaucrats, who see the world through custom-tailored blinders, are more interested in preserving habitat for threatened wildlife than saving human lives and homes. Politicians and bureaucrats together create the setting for an inevitable disaster.

The tragic ending to this story is not hard to write. A disaster occurs. Homes are lost. People are injured, maybe even killed. Politicians arrive on scene to posture in front of TV cameras, looking appropriately grim as they pontificate and spout more empty words. Another commission is empaneled and another six-figure contract is funded for a consultant to conduct a study and come up with a solution — one that probably will never be implemented anyway. The consultant will, coincidentally of course, be a major campaign contributor to many key politicians’ and political parties’ campaign war-chests.

And the beat goes on.

The danger in Flanders is a real and present danger. The risk is not exaggerated or sensationalized. These are the facts:

There are more than 11,000 acres of preserved pine barrens in the Flanders Fire District, where there hasn’t been a major brush fire in some 50 years. Why is this a danger?

The pine barrens burn. They burn as part of their natural ecological cycle. “Fuel load” — undergrowth, grasses, leaves, needles — in the pine barrens accumulates over time and waits for an ignition source. Fire opens pine cones, allowing the seeds within to drop. It’s known as a fire-dependent ecosystem.

Besides the typical accumulation of fuel load you’d expect over several decades without a fire, the Flanders pine barrens is also littered with thousands of dead oak trees — another dangerous situation that’s gone unchecked for nearly a decade now. There was a massive oak die-off in the mid-2000s. Thousands of tall dead oaks stand among the pitch pines of the forest. Some of them have fallen to the forest floor, creating more fuel for brush fires and creating obstructions for firefighters who need to get into the woods to put fires out.

The state and county governments own the vast majority of the more than 11,000 acres of preserved land. They are fully aware of the condition of the woods. They even mapped the areas of “hardwood mortality” in 2008. These property owners — stewards of the public lands and stewards of the public trust — have allowed existing fire lanes to become so overgrown that they are nearly impassable in some spots and totally impassable in others. Worse, they have purposely and intentionally blocked some fire lanes with dead oak trees.

Why were the fire lanes allowed to become overgrown and in some places intentionally obstructed? To prevent illegal activity such as ATV-riding, dirt bike riding and dumping. Fire lanes, remember, are trails cleared in the woods to allow firefighters’ brush trucks to enter in order to control and put out brush fires. In the Flanders pine barrens, thanks to government negligence, the fire lanes have become useless or worse, treacherous. What happened during a small brush fire in the Flanders woods last Saturday demonstrates this so clearly it’s inconceivable that nothing is still being done.

Flanders Fire District officials for years have been pleading with state and county officials to correct this very readily correctable situation. Some bulldozers and a couple of teams of people with chain saws would do the trick. But no.

First, Flanders fire chiefs say, they were told there was no money to undertake this work.

Then, after the state pine barrens commission came up with $697,000 to pay consultants to study the condition of the entire pine barrens region over a five-year period, the state and county say there will be recommendations made for dealing with the conditions there…in about another year.

Meanwhile, the conditions — and the danger — continue. And another “fire season” is here. Fire season is a time when dry air and strong winds often combine to create an enhanced risk of wildfire spread. On a day like today, for instance, expected conditions gave rise to a “red flag warning” by the National Weather Service. The massive Manorville wildfire on April 9, 2012 occurred on a day when a red flag warning was in effect. The warning means conditions are perfect for a wildfire to become uncontrolled.

If that happens in Flanders, firefighters do not have safe pathways to get deep into the woods to try to stop a fire. Hundreds of homes built in and around the woods will be in jeopardy. Countless lives will be at risk, including the lives of brave volunteers trying to protect the rest of us.

“The fire in Manorville? That was nothing. This has the potential to be far worse even than 1995,” former Flanders fire chief Todd Ryan — frustrated and disgusted from banging his head against the wall with county and state regulators — told me in May 2013.

Make no mistake, no matter what the politicians may say after a disaster occurs, when they stand in front of the cameras wearing solemn expressions on their stoic faces, they really don’t care about the residents or the firefighters or their homes. Well, they only care as much as whatever may happen will make them look bad and cost them votes.

If they really did care, they’d listen. They wouldn’t spin a tale of baloney about studies being done and action that may be taken a year from now such as the following:

We are aware of the complaints. Under grant funding, the Central Pine Barrens Joint Planning and Policy Commission is currently conducting an assessment to see which fire lanes need clearing and is also performing the actual remediation.  – spokesperson for County Executive Steve Bellone in an April 15 email.

There’s no need for a six-figure consultant to figure out which fire lanes need clearing. Ask the fire chiefs, damnit. And the “actual remediation” she’s talking about? It doesn’t involve any dead tree removal. It’s some controlled burns in locations still to be determined.

State Pine Barrens Commission executive director John Pavacic told me these things in no uncertain terms twice this month, as well as during an interview in May 2013 — two years and three “fire seasons” back. The same thing.

If politicians really did care, they wouldn’t tolerate bureaucrats like Pavacic telling residents that dead-tree habitat for flying squirrels, owls, woodpeckers “and other organisms” is more important than their own homes. And, for that matter, more important than human lives. Because that’s exactly the meaning of what he told me. Twice.

On Monday, after a press conference for the TV cameras to announce a new brush truck training course for firefighters — without, of course, acknowledging what firefighters in Flanders have been seeking for years — I asked for a direct answer from the county executive. Instead I got an email — on Wednesday — from a spokesperson with the infuriatingly non-responsive answer printed above.

On Wednesday afternoon, I called County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, whose district includes the territory in question. He called me back that evening — from JFK airport, he said, as he was just returning from someplace. I explained the situation. I told him to please view our video. I had sent him a link that morning. He promised to look at it and call me the next day. That was Wednesday —no call back yet.

If politicians really did care, they’d stand up and do the right thing — which in this case is as plain as the phony smiles on their faces.

But they don’t care — so they don’t do what they should.

And that cycle of neglect is what produced the disaster waiting to happen in the Flanders woods.

I pray we get through another fire season without a disaster. I don’t know about Bellone and Schneiderman, but I have neighbors, friends and relatives who will be answering the call to stop a brush fire in Flanders when it happens. I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when fire watches and red flag alerts are issued.

Surely there must be a way for the politicians and bureaucrats to preserve the pine barrens, protect the flying squirrels, keep their favorite consultants employed, look good for the TV cameras and at the same time fulfill their duty under the state constitution to protect the health, safety and welfare of the taxpaying residents who fund the whole shebang.

Denise Civiletti is an owner of East End Local Media Corp., publishers of RiverheadLOCAL.com and SoutholdLOCAL.com. An award-winning reporter, she is an attorney and former Riverhead Town councilwoman (1988-1991); she lives in Riverhead with her husband and business partner, Peter Blasl. The views expressed in her blog are hers alone. Send Denise an email.