Pine barrens wildfire mitigation plan criticized by firefighters, residents

Wildfire mitigation plans advanced by the pine barrens commission were roundly criticized by residents and volunteer firefighters at a community forum in Flanders last night for not prioritizing an area of preserved woodlands that firefighters say pose the most serious threat to life and property.

Will Bowman, of Land Use Ecological Services, a Medford consulting firm awarded a $697,000 contract in 2013 to survey and assess Long Island’s Central Pine Barrens Region and perform maintenance services over a five-year-period, outlined detailed maintenance plans for a 128-acre tract in Flanders just west of Brookhaven Avenue.

The plans, aimed at reducing “ladder fuels” — mostly the dense undergrowth that leads to fast-spreading and hard-to-contain treetop, or canopy, fires — call for using a forestry mower to thin out the forest floor followed by prescribed fires in designated confined areas. See conceptual plan below.

Plans also call for creating a new 2.98-mile “fire line” — a trail to provide access for fire-fighting vehicles — along the western boundary lines of private properties along Brookhaven Avenue. The fire line would be gated to prevent unauthorized access.

The consultant said work to clear and extend an existing fire lane through the woods west of Pleasure Drive is part of the plan, but was “left out at the moment — deferred because many of those areas need a bulldozer and that’s equipment we don’t have,” he said.

A massive oak die-off a decade ago left thousands of standing dead oak trees, many of which have since fallen and now litter the forest floor “like pick-up sticks,” Bowman said.

“The forestry mower can’t operate there,” Bowman said. “It’s even difficult to walk.”

“You can barely walk down that trail, imagine trying to get a truck through there,” Flanders Fire Chief Joe Pettit said.

A succession of Flanders fire chiefs has been asking to have conditions in the preserved woodlands west of Pleasure Drive tended to. A fire there, they say, would be catastrophic, not only because of the increased fuel load from dead oaks and thick underbrush, but — first and foremost, according to Pettit — because of lack of access.

Pettit said a brush fire in the area in April demonstrated the problem very clearly. It took five-and-a-half hours and seven brush trucks to bring it under control. Two of the brush trucks were incapacitated by damage sustained due to the conditions there.

The chief expressed disappointment that the commission did not make the Pleasure Drive woodlands its top priority.

“I mean, we’ve been working on this for eight-and-a-half years, asking for help,” Pettit said. “It’s hard to believe you’d draw up a maintenance plan and that’s not the the first focus. There’s a lot of effort being put into Brookhaven Avenue. We can access the woods to get in and attack a fire there. We can’t chase down a fire off Pleasure Drive because we can’t get access. I just don’t think the resources are being put in the right place.”

Pettit said when he met with the commission’s executive director John Pavacic two weeks ago, Pavacic said the fire lane west of Pleasure Drive would be included in the work.

“I didn’t hear you say anything about that tonight and that makes me nervous,” Pettit said.

“We can’t do it without any extra input,” Bowman said. “We’re hoping additional resources from the state, county and local fire departments will help us stretch what we can do.”

Pavacic, who was in attendance, added commission staff would have to “sit down with county parks and figure out the resources in the county or the commission will bring in, a bulldozer or whatever is needed to make that accessible.”

Bowman said chain saw crews would go into that area to conduct what the plan calls “selective thinning” on about 25 of the 113 acres in question.

Residents questioned why the commission staff and consultant did not consult with local firefighters at the outset of the planning process.

“Why wouldn’t you go first to the local firefighters, who know these woods like the back of their hand?” asked Nikki Sacco of Bayview Pines.

“Those guys are going into those woods,” Susan Tocci, of Flanders, said. “It’s suicide.”

Mechanical thinning work would be completed between November 2015 and March 2106, Bowman said, and prescribed fires would take place next spring.

The prescribed fires, in addition to reducing forest fuels, have important ecological benefits, Pavacic noted. The pine barrens is a fire-dependent ecosystem, he said. Pinecones sealed with a natural wax only open in a fire, dropping seeds necessary for regeneration. Fires also get rid of invasive species, he said.

The plan has not yet been adopted by the commission, comprising the supervisors of Brookhaven, Southampton and Riverhead as well as representatives of the governor and the county executive.

L.I. Pine Barrens Society executive director Richard Amper disputes firefighters’ contentions.

“They’re complaining that the pine barrens are a mess and they can’t drive their trucks,” Amper told RiverheadLOCAL in June.

“Access to the pine barrens is fine,” Amper said. “Yes, there are some fallen trees but this is not a recreational parkland. It’s a forest preserve. Every time a tree falls down in a forest preserve, you dont clean it up.”

Amper said he is concerned about the maintenance plans being proposed, especially regarding planned mechanical clearing of undergrowth in the pine barrens.

“It alters the ecology of the pine barrens,” he said in an interview this morning. “The commission needs to look at that very carefully.”

 
plan

Flanders wildfire mitigation plan