Key areas of Pinelands slowly reopen, and new growth sprouts, after harrowing fire

Krissy Raudy, business manager for Pinelands Adventures, was handling a busy summer paddling and camping schedule at the outfit’s Burlington County headquarters on June 19 when she received a text at 10:26 a.m. that stopped her cold.

“There is a fire that appears to be uncontrolled near the first sandbar,” read the text by two kayakers Raudy had equipped earlier that morning. The kayakers had spotted a blaze in the woods along their location on the Mullica River in the sprawling Wharton State Forest.

Raudy had no idea whether the kayakers spotted a true forest fire, or maybe a large campfire. Pinelands Adventures organizes trips, rents boats, and offers guided tours and Raudy had a group camping overnight at the Mullica River Campground.

Just prior to the time of the text, a crew member of the Forest Fire Service in the Batsto Fire Tower had also spotted smoke and flames nearly 8 miles away.

New Jersey’s largest blaze in 15 years had just been ignited at an illegal campsite and was racing toward key areas used by Pinelands Adventures and its customers.

“The [New Jersey] Forest Fire Service hadn’t called us yet,” Raudy said. “And we had no idea how far south it was spreading, or what direction it was traveling … As far as we knew, we just had to evacuate those people.”

Raudy and her staff called an emergency line to the fire service, jumped in trucks or buses and drove off to find the paddlers and campers — not a quick task considering the miles of meandering river that runs through dense brush, and the twisting, bumpy sand roads that lace the 123,000-acre forest.

The staff managed to extract all the customers safely in what ultimately roared into a 13,500 acre, multiday blaze that is still burning in small hot spots weeks later, but is 95% contained. Fire officials believe it was caused by an illegal campfire, but have not released its location. Hot, breezy conditions combined with extraordinary low humidity helped the fire spread quickly.

» READ MORE: Wharton State Forest wildfire spans 13,500 acres; illegal campfire investigated as possible cause

The conflagration was mostly confined to Wharton State Forest, which lies within the much larger Pinelands National Reserve, and contains some of the Pine Barrens’ most visited areas, such as Batsto Village, Atsion Recreation Area, Apple Pie Hill, and Carranza Memorial. The Mullica, Batsto and Oswego Rivers also run through it.

All of 18 structures, including some that are historical, survived.

The Forest Fire Service and Wharton State Forest staff cleared at least 50 trees that fell across a 4.6-mile stretch of the Mullica River from Constable Bridge to Lock’s Bridge, a key area for Pinelands Adventures trips. Felled trees also blocked key portions of the Batsto River.

The state’s Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees the forest, started opening popular trails last weekend, such as the Batona, Tom’s Pond, Mullica River, and the Batsto Red, White and Blue Trails — though Wharton State Forest officials note there is still some potential for trees to fall. And all trails from Atsion to Batsto, including mountain biking trails, remain closed as hot spots continue to burn. The Mullica River Campground will remain closed through July 15.

The fire forced Pinelands Adventures to close operations for two weeks until it reopened July 2. Overall, the outfitter had to cancel trips for 850 people. And many would-be customers have postponed trips, Raudy said, fearing they’d be kayaking through a barren, charred wilderness — which she says is not the case.

Pinelands Adventures is owned by the nonprofit Pinelands Preservation Alliance (PPA), an environmental group singled out by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service for helping restore trails and waterways after the blaze. The Outdoor Club of South Jersey, and the Jersey Off Road Bicycling Association also helped. All the groups depend on volunteers.

“It really shut down people’s ability to explore and enjoy the forest for almost two weeks,” said Carleton Montgomery, the longtime director of the PPA. “And that took away a big chunk of work for us. We were we were not able to take people canoeing and kayaking on the Batsto and Mullica Rivers. That was a blow to Pinelands Adventures. We lost a lot of customers.”

PPA went to work helping the Forest Fire Service, though they didn’t participate in firefighting.

“Our staff helped to go out and identify small places where the fire will keep burning because the fire gets underground and among turf and root,” Montgomery said. “And we were given permission to work on the Batsto River to clear obstacles so that people can start enjoying it again.”

Montgomery said the fire burned in what’s known as a mosaic pattern ― patches of blackened trees and ground alternating with areas still abundantly green.

Rosemary “Ro” Mason, a trail maintenance leader for the Outdoor Club of South Jersey, said she was “pleasantly surprised” that the fire did less damage than originally feared when 18 structures were threatened, including those at historic Batsto Village, all of which were unscathed.

“It was really eerie and quiet, and smoky in places,” Mason said of the days after the fire when she and other volunteers helped restore a section of the Batona Trail, a 53-mile path that runs through Wharton, the Franklin Parker Preserve and Bass River State Forest. “I could see little hot spots and thought it was really strange. You would see black, and then green, and then brown, and then black again. It had no rhyme nor reason.”

Last Friday, Andy Giles, director of Pinelands Adventures, drove his Land Rover along Quaker Bridge Road, a sand road that dates to the 18th century. He noted how, even among a desolate area of blackened, charred trees and vegetation, new growth is already poking through, including tiny pink oak leaves.

New Jersey’s Pine Barrens are forged in fire, which is largely beneficial unless it threatens firefighters, people and buildings, Giles explained. In fact, Native Americans once burned sections to improve hunting conditions. The pitch pine trees that dominate the forest are highly flammable and depend on fire to release seeds from cones.

The bark of the pitch pines will char in a fire, but the trees will remain fully alive — unless the heat is extreme, as it was in some areas of the Mullica River blaze.

Giles pointed to the remains of a pine tree that had burned so badly most of its middle is gone. Those present the biggest danger right now, he said. Giles was walking his dog recently when a tree suddenly toppled in front of them.

“Tree collapses might occur for weeks or months after a fire,” he said. “And that’s why right now Lock’s Bridge south on the Mullica River is still closed to paddlers.”