Bill to allow prescribed burns
- Thread starter rc911
- Start date
I agree that we need more control burns but hotter and larger ones.
Yes I agree also, but how to do that without the controlled burn becoming a wild fire itself?
I think it's too late. Nobody in the NJFFS would be on board with ramping things up. Here is a public announcement from about a month ago from the state warden:
"It is extremely important that the public understand that a moment of carelessness can cause a wildfire that puts lives and homes at risk.”
These kind of announcements mean no politician would ever be on board with planning hotter fires in order to promote the windswept plains of old-time Pine Barrens.
No, the elemental pine barrens that we see in old, grainy, black and white photographs are hopelessly doomed. We still have some nice spots of stunted trees and blinding white sand covered in myrtle, heather, and trailing arbutus, but they will eventually be overcome by other plants some day.
I'm glad I got to see what's left.
"It is extremely important that the public understand that a moment of carelessness can cause a wildfire that puts lives and homes at risk.”
These kind of announcements mean no politician would ever be on board with planning hotter fires in order to promote the windswept plains of old-time Pine Barrens.
No, the elemental pine barrens that we see in old, grainy, black and white photographs are hopelessly doomed. We still have some nice spots of stunted trees and blinding white sand covered in myrtle, heather, and trailing arbutus, but they will eventually be overcome by other plants some day.
I'm glad I got to see what's left.
Bob I agree. The landscape is changing drastically. They will not do big burns to keep it the way it was. Too many homes now and they won't take the blame if they lose control. Even the short pines are way taller then even when I was a kid and that wasnt that long ago.
They won't even have to take the blame. There are thousands of Monday morning quarterbacks who will gladly assign it to them. They'd be nuts to attempt what the pines really need. But there is a plan B. Mechanical thinning, such as what has been done on the Haines property in Chatsworth. It would mimic the effects that unrestricted fire once had and could be maintained with subsequent prescribed burns, which probably couldn't crown if you wanted them to do. The only problem is that too many view tree cutting the way fire was once viewed, something to be avoided at all costs. An uphill battle, to say the least.
I had a reply to your post German, but I deleted it. I don't want to debate your assertion that mechanical thinning will mimic wildfire. Let's just say that I think it's not feasible, and it's quite a claim.
Looking at the Hain's property today, the trees have rebounded but the growth is very dense. The trees are leggy sticks. I don't see any big old growth pines coming out of this. Also look at the white pines planted by the Lebanon fire tower. Just a bunch of sticks.
I miss more than anything riding down 72 in the evening and seeing vast stretches of the tops of trees. Now that road is unremarkable compared to 35 years ago.
