Pinelands fires: A menace and a necessity

A blaze on more than 100 acres kindled and raged earlier this month in Wharton State Forest of the New Jersey Pinelands. With a plume rising thousands of feet and a dull, unmistakable roar, it was a fire termed major by state woodlands standards, leaving hikers covering their faces to escape the smoke.

The scion of a family fighting blazes in the woods since the state fire service started more than 100 years ago, warden Mike Achey and his men knew well what they needed to do.

Using the natural barrier of a stream, they went on to light backfires so the advancing flames would hit a border devoid of forest fuel - containment as strategy.

"We essentially corralled the fire by fire," said Achey, Pinelands born and raised.

Fire is a fact of life in the Pine Barrens, 1.1 million acres of prized forestland reaching from lower central Jersey into the southern part of the state. The flames pose a threat, particularly as development as crept up to the woods, but they're also an integral part of the Pinelands' natural ecosystem process.

And spring, with higher temperatures, longer days, wind, and dry conditions, is historically a prime time for wildfires.

Each year, the state Forest Fire Service responds to more than 1,500 wildfires statewide. This year from Jan. 1 to April 25, there have been 520 fires, burning 1,212 acres, compared to 324 fires and almost 443 acres during the same time last year - a reflection, in part, of weather differences between the two periods.

As of this writing, this week's fire of about 95 acres in Winslow was under control but being monitored. It's not at all uncommon for forest fires to stay under watch for weeks.

Since at least mid-month, fire danger has been rated high in both central and southern Jersey and very high in the northern part of the state. The forest fire service recently urged the public to exercise extra caution outdoors to reduce the risk of fire.

Ninety-nine percent of wildfires are caused by people, be it by accident, negligence, carelessness, or arson, according to the fire service.

The Pinelands has its own challenges. According to a state report, Pinelands fires burn very hot and spread fast, on an incendiary par with California's chaparral.

"This forest community is one of the most hazardous wildland fuel types in the nation," according to a state report.

This time of year, much of that fuel is dried out forest materials. But the region's pitch pines also have a resin with its own flammable properties.

Add to that the proximity of development, including residential communities that have grown over the years. Some say there is more than enough cause for concern.

A recent article in Rolling Stone predicted that the nation's biggest wildfire disaster could turn out to be not out west, as many people would probably expect, but rather in New Jersey's Pinelands, with potential for huge losses of life and properties.

History has seen major conflagrations in New Jersey's woodlands.

The big one - the blaze everyone in New Jersey's forest-fighting community talks about - was April 1963. A series of 37 fires burned three days, affecting 193,000 acres. Some 186 homes and 197 other buildings burned, and seven people were killed. Property damage totaled $8.5 million. One fire alone traveled 21 miles from New Lisbon to the Garden State Parkway, the state said.

Other blazes since gobbled up acres by the thousands, including the inferno of May 2007 that destroyed five homes in two senior-citizen housing developments in Barnegat and 13 homes on the border between Ocean and Burlington Counties.

There are those, including people in state government, who won't deny that the fire version of a perfect storm like the one in 1963 could happen again, a repeat worst case scenario. But they say a lot has changed since then.

"We've come a long way in terms of how we approach wildfires and how we attack them," said Larry Hajna, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Bill Edwards is the state forest fire warden - Jersey's wildfire fire chief.

Since the bad one of 1963, he said, the state has increased its professional, full-time forest-fire fighters, in addition to its larger contingent of dedicated part-timers.

The fire service also has more apparatus to battles blazes, Edwards said, stricter fire permit regulations to aid prevention, and does more "prescribed burning" - setting small fires to thin out a forest and reduce the potential for a major conflagration.

Edwards said his departments want to increase the amount of the prescribed burning done.

The forest fire service's main responsibility, the chief said, is to protect life and property. But in forests, fire is not always a simple matter.

"Fire is a forest maintenance tool," he said. "Any kind of fire, even a wildfire, is good or bad depending on your perspective."

An unculled forest affects the species that can survive and thrive there. Eventually, experts say, the nature of the forest may be altered.

Bob Williams, a veteran forester, has long argued that the state's prescribed burns have not gone far enough and that its fire suppression policy has gone too far, ultimately leading to a greater fire risk.

Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club and a strong critic of the Christie administration's policies, said the inferno described by Rolling Stone is not an impossibility.

"We will make the worst-case scenario more likely if we keep overpumping the aquifers, drying out the wetlands and forests, building in the middle of the Pinelands and changing the ecology," he said.

An even greater concern, he said, is the proposed building of gas pipelines in forest preservation areas.

"These pipes could rupture if the area is on fire and then it could (be) the worst-case scenario," he said.

Ultimately, humans will continue to debate how to manage the natural factor of fire in the state and the nation's forests, not to mention how to mitigate its dangers and harness its benefits.

Said Bill Edwards: "It's good for people to have respect for fires."

rgiordano@phillynews.com

856-779-3893

@ritagiordano