2008 wildfire fatalities

For a summary of 2008 wildfire fatalities, see this post from wildfire today.

Kittatiny Ridge hike, Oct. 1995

In my entry of December 22, 2008, I wrote about the 750–acre wild fire on the Kittatinny Ridge of early September 1995. A few weeks later, after the fire was 100 percent contained, my friend and I took a hike up to the ridge to see the area of the wild fire for ours selves. I have noted in the images from Google Earth included above the approximate location of where we parked and where one edge of the wild fire was. As I write this, I am looking at a map of this area from the NY–NJ Trail Conference with a notation that the area that I am writing about is within the boundaries of the Worthington State Forest. Please keep in mind that I am going by memory, aided by the fact that I know what trail we took the ridge.

Remembering that we took a trail known as the Douglas Trail which joins the Appalachian Trail (AT) just over one–half mile south of Sunfish Pond and remembering looking to my right to see one portion of the burned area, I came up with an approximate location for one edge of the fire. You approach the Douglas Trail from River Road, off of I–80 west near the Delaware Water Gap (on the border of NJ/PA border). If you look closely at the topographical map, you might be able to make out a dashed line climbing the ridge not far from an approximate location of the parking area where we parked off of River Road.

If memory serves, in 1995 there was a backpackers camping area at the junction of the Douglas Trail and the AT. I remember that this was a cleared area. I mention this backpackers camping area because we ran someone who had some affiliation, either with the NJ Forest Service or with the NY/NJ Trail Conference. I availed myself of the opportunity to ask him how the fire started and s/he told me that it was an “illegal” campfire. The illegal notation is important because at the time of this fire, there was a Statewide ban on all outdoor campfires in NJ as well as similar bans in adjoining areas of NY and PA because of the drought.

It is possible, but I don’t exactly trust my memory on this point, that as I was glancing to my right and seeing the burned area, that this burned area was “across” the trail from the backpackers camping area. The backpackers camping area being one lilkely place for an “illegal” campfire.

My point being that I recall being saddened by the fact that fire was of human origin, but then I understand that many wildfires are of human origin.

My other point being that with the possible exception of hikes in the NJ Pine Barrens, this was the first time that I recall being up close and personal with an area that was burned in a wild fire. I recall the charred understory and the burned tree trunks (sometimes known as snags) devoid of much of their limbs.

We have since slacked off on our day hiking, and while I am pretty certain that we have visited this area of the ridge after the October 1995 hike, it may have been eight or nine years since we have been to the ridge. Since I have been both thinking and writing about this fire, I do want to hike up the ridge –– climbing 1,000 feet in elevation –– on the same trail this coming spring or summer. I am somewhat heavier than I was thirteen years ago, and I have problems with my knees. I want to see for myself how the area burned in 1995 has recovered.

I have always remembered the images of seeing these burned areas that had burned a month earlier, a reminder of the power of fire. And a reminder of the human origins of many fires.

Fire on Kittatinny Ridge (NJ): Aug 31, 1995

Up until September of 1995, I don’t recall ever seeing the aftermath of a wild fire (forest fire) up close and personal. Nor had one impacted me the way that what I will call the Kitattiny Ridge Fire did. I say impacted me because we did quite a bit of day hiking that summer and fall, and the Kitattiny Ridge (north of the Delaware Water Gap) was one of our favorite destinations. What follows are my recollections, with acreage burned and dates taken from newspaper reports.

Memory is a funny thing. I want to say that I have clear memories of the summer of 1995 being an extraordinarily dry summer, due to a somewhat prolonged drought. What I can say is that since I have been reading and learning about wild fires over the last several weeks, I am much more aware that extraordinarily dry conditions are one of the precursors of wild fires. Knowing this, I can replay my memory tapes from that summer of 1995 and know that it was only a matter of time before something happened. I think that I recall that most, if not all, of the parks, forests, and recreation areas prohibited campfires that summer.

I recall hearing and reading about a fire on the Kittatinny Ridge, north of the Delaware Water Gap when the news broke. See the image (from Google Earth) showing the approach to the Kitatinny Ridge from I-80 and the location of the fire (about two to three miles north of I-80 on the Ridge or just south of the two bodies of water.

A few weeks ago, I found a New York Times article dated Saturday, September 2 1995 jogged my memory. According to this article, the fire started on Thursday morning, August 31 near a camping area along the Appalachian Trail. Twelve hours later, firefighters had held the fire to about 90 acres. Then, sometimes Thursday night or early Friday morning, Mother Nature intervened in the form of a cold front and associated winds. The fire jumped control lines. The New York Times reported the fire as being “out of control.” By Friday afternoon (Sept. 1) somewhere around 300 acres had burned.

If memory serves, the fire was straining the resources of the local fire crews. At the time, I was not aware of the existence of the NJ Forest Fire Service, but I expect that they were involved in fighting this fire. I only remember thinking –– with a sense of respect –– that most of the local fire departments were (and still are) volunteer squads. I knew that there was a real battle going on the ridge between the fire and those who were fighting the fire. I remembering hearing media reports that resources from out of state, probably from adjoining states came to help us fight the fire.

I had an idea where the fire was, it was on the top of the ridge, and a few miles of the Appalachian Trail were closed down. I wondered how bad the damage was. I suspected, perhaps from television and newspaper accounts of the fire, that the fire had human origins.

In a NY Times article dated, September 5, 1995 (a Tuesday), it was reported that the fire was brought under control, but not yet contained, on Sunday, Sept. 3. The final tally, per the NY Times was about 750 acres burned.

The dry summer of 1995

I remember the dry summer of 1995. We were doing quite a bit of day hiking that summer and I was aware of the ban on camp fires in the areas were we hiked. Not because we did overnight hiking and were camping out, but because I paid attention to news reports on the effects of the drought. In addition, in areas where we were frequent hikers, I recall noticing low or dried–up streams.

I knew enough to know that dry conditions meant fire danger. Two fires that summer are fixed in my memory. The first fire was a fire that burned the Long Island Pine Barrens, I later realized the fire was known as the Sunrise Fire. The media reports of the Sunrise Fire made an impression on me because eastern Long Island was a second home for me. In all the years that I spent living first in New York City and later in New Jersey, I heard about fires in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey but I don’t recall hearing media reports of fires in the Long Island Pine Barrens. I’ll write more about this fire and its aftermath in a little more detail in later blog entries.

The second fire burned a few hundred acres in the kittatiny ridge in New Jersey, in an area where we frequently hiked. This fire, of suspicious origins, started after the Sunrise Fire. Stay tuned for more on this fire, especially its aftermath.

More on the Long Island of my youth

For the first several years of my life we were living in Massachusetts. When we traveled to Long Island from Massachusetts my Dad would drive to New London, Connecticut and take the ferry to Orient Point. Orient Point is at the end of the northern fork of Long Island. If memory serves, the drive to East Setauket was about one hour. I seem to recall that the area we drove through was predominantly farmland until we got just east of Port Jefferson. Depending on our exact route, it is possible that we may have driven along the northern edge of the Long Island Pine Barrens.

When I was fourteen we moved to Maryland and approached Long Island from the west, through Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens before getting to Nassau and then Suffolk county. When we got to my Grandparent’s house, we spent most of the time in the immediate area of East Setauket. So, it was not until I was in my late twenties that I went for a drive east, retracing some of the route to Orient Point. I had a desire to revisit the farmlands and open space that I remembered from my childhood.

I was in for an awakening. I drove to Port Jefferson and proceeded east. Port Jefferson was the same. The area east of Port Jefferson was not. New housing developments, shopping centers, and office complexes were built where open space once stood. After about 30 minutes of this, I turned around and went back. I don’t think that I made it as far as the northern edge of the Pine Barrens.

Speaking of the Long Island Pine Barrens, I never thought about them much when I was younger. Depending on our route, I may have only seen them a couple of times, and I don’t think we ever did more than drive by. They were so different from the forests of northern New England that I may not have even recognized them as forests.

I do remember driving out to eastern Long Island in the summer of 1994 and seeing the Pine Barrens from the highway. I knew that they were something special. But we did not get out to visit them. I regret that. We have not been back since.

copyright 2008 K. Tyler Miller

Grandma's house on Long Island

My home away from home up until I was thirty was my Grandparents home in East Setauket, NY on the north shore of Long Island not far from Port Jefferson and Stony Brook. There was a farm next to my Grandparents house, perhaps 30 or 40 acres. I can still remember strolling down the farm lane with my sister and my Grandmother when I was a little girl.

There were several nearby places to swim, at least when I was growing up. One was perhaps one-half to one mile down the road. It was nothing more than a patch of sand with a nearby dock where you could rent a rowboat and tool around the cove. Or at other times, we would walk the other way, go onto the beach and walk below the high tide mark. For the water front property owners owned down to the high tide mark. So, anyone could walk below the high tide mark. This was a great place to gather shells. And look for horse shoe crabs.

Finally there was a town beach that was a five or ten minute drive from our grandparents house. A beach with a float and a Good Humor ice cream truck. When we were teenagers, my sister and I would sometimes walk to the town beach, cutting through the old farm lane to the road leading to the beach.

The farm is long gone. It was sold after the elderly couple who owned the farm died. It languished for a few years untouched with only a new road going in from the street. I am going to say that it was sometime in the early 1970s when the farm was sold. This property was developed, not quite sure when, perhaps sometime in the 1980s

My grandparents house used to be the farm house. A sprawling house with an absolutely awesome porch on the side facing the cove. We would sit out there on nice evenings with my grandparents, walking on the railing trying not to fall into the holly bushes.

It was a simple time. With simple memories.

I returned later for visits, sometimes seeking sanctuary from whatever life was throwing at me at the moment. My Grandma and Grandpa would take me in for a few days. I'd watch tennis or baseball with my Grandpa and walk along the road on the shore with my Grandma. And eat. I still remember her macaroni and cheese and the toll house cookies she would make when we visited.

Memories of what seemed to be a simpler time.

John McPhee and Eddie Parker's cousin

One of the books that I have been reading is a book called The Pine Barrens written by John McPhee in 1967. As I understand it, this book was one of the movers that lead to the preservation of the NJ Pine Barrens through the Pinelands Commission. If any one you out there want to get a feel for the NJ Pine Barrens -- both the ecosystem and her people -- go and pick up this book.

Naturally, he has a chapter on wildfires. I want to cite one of my favorite passages:

One of the first lessons in forest-fire survival is: Get into burned ground. But this is not always easy. Head fires can also be as much as half a mile deep. Lateral fires can be only a foot deep, but they can also be a hundred feet deep. In 1936, a cousin of the fire watcher, Eddie Parker was caught in the middle when a head fire and a backfire came together. He had to time to get to burned ground. The last living thing he did was to kneel as he burned, and embrace a pine tree (McPhee, The Pine Barrens, p. 111)

I have never been near a wild or forest fire. If I was caught in a forest fire, I think that I would embrace a pine tree.

holiday fire safety

I was at the CAL FIRE website to see if there had been any recent wildfire activity in CA over the last few days because I had seen some posts about red flag warnings on wildland fire. CAL FIRE did not report any wildfire activity.

However, I thought this page on holiday fire safety to be a useful and timely reminder.

timeout: I'm back

I am back in town from my meeting and am starting to catch up with myself.

I can briefly follow-up on my last post about double-decker NJ transit trains. I realized on Saturday afternoon when I was riding back to NJ with a friend from out of town one perhaps disadvantage in the double-decker design. That is, the overhead luggage racks are smaller in the double-decker trains perhaps because the train has to be smaller in order to fit through the tunnels into NYC. Not a big thing for commuters who don't have luggage. But both my luggage and my friend's luggage did not fit in the luggage rack.

timeout: double decker trains

I am not exactly a frequent rider of NJ transit commuter rail, the last time I rode NJ transit trains was one year ago. The first thing that I had to do was to get myself to the train station and park my car. Finding parking near a train station in NJ is not always an easy thing to do. I am fortunate to have a good friend living within an easy walk of a train station who lets me park my car in their driveway while I am in NYC. What wonderful friends!

As the train pulled into the station, I noticed that the train was one of the new double decker trains that NJ transit rolled out a year or two ago. I sat on the top level and enjoyed a smooth ride. I was on a double decker over night Amtrak train a few years ago where you sometimes felt a slight swaying on the top deck. Not so on the NJ transit train. But I was only on this train for 30 minutes, a mere drop in the bucket compared to the overnight down south.

If memory serves, these double decker trains are a little shorter in height than other double deckers, e.g. Amtrak, in order to fit in the tunnels into Manhattan.

For someone who doesn't ride trains all the often, I certainly did enjoy the novelty of riding a double decker. I had been wanting to ride one of these double deckers but had no expectation that I would be able to. I wonder if I will ride a double decker on my return trip?

Reflections on wildland firefighting and where I am going

This is not going to come out right, but I'll try. The more that I read about fighting wildfires, the more respect that I have for wildland firefighter. The more I read, the more I realize that wildfires are very complex, that techniques that work to contain one wildfire may not work on another. After a few weeks, I think that I might be starting to get a handle on some of the lingo, different types of wildland fire fighters, the different agencies, the differences between fighting wildfires in NJ and those out west. However, I can not begin to put what I am learning into words. Rather, I hope that whatever little knowledge and insight I have might help me as I begin to pursue my own special interests in wildfires.

I'm just beginning to get a handle on where my interests in wildfires will take me. I ask for your patience as I have some more reading and research to do before I say anything here. It also might be a couple of weeks before I can say anything substantial about this new direction in this blog. I have some business to attend over the next several days.

I will keep up with the blog in some way over the next several days, but I may or may not be writing about my journey of learning about wildfires.

In closing, what I can say is that I have new found respect for those who fight fires, whether you be wildland firefighters, structure firefighters, or a combination of the two. And these words feel wholly inadequate.

Revisiting why I am writing about wildfires

I have been thinking about why I have been posting about wildfires on this blog as I continue to read books about wildland fires, read incident reports of certain wildfires (e.g. certain fires that had tragic outcomes), look at web pages from various federal and state forest fire agencies, and other prowl the internet researching wildfires and the people who fight wildfires.

The answer that I came up is, at least for now, that I am using this blog to write about some of what I have been learning about wildfires and the people who fight wildfires. In a way, I am taking you along on my journey into the world of learning about wildfires and the people who fight wildfires.

Sometimes I do no more than post links with some added sentences to make the post coherent. Other times, I have posted links where others have been writing about current wildfires such as the recent Santa-Ana wind driven wildfires in southern California. Or I have posted what I hope are accurate references to sites explaining terminology used by wildfire fighters and the agencies that employ them. I hope that I am getting "it" right. I may not be. And when I later recognize that I may have gotten something wrong, then I might edit the post in question and/or write a follow-up post.

There is much that I still have to learn, and where I am uncertain about my facts or if I recognize that I still have more to learn before I can write about a particular aspect of the world of wildfires, I do not post. There has been one occasion, as happened earlier today where I posted a reference only to delete the post later when I realized that I still had more to learn about issues that I was attempting to raise. So, I decided that the simplest thing was to delete the post.

When I first started writing about the Basin Complex Fire in CA in early July, I knew very little about wildfires. I have learned a great deal since that time, and have recently become aware that I have only scratched the surface of what there is to know.

What does containing a fire mean?

The LA Fire Department's news and information blog has a link to a good, short article about what it means when it is reported that a fire is 50% contained.

photos from So CA fires

Check out these photos from photographers at boston.com. I found the link to these photos from this thread at wildland fire.

In Memoriam: El Cariso Hotshots

I saw a reference to this post on the LA fire department news and information blog. This post tells a story behind the Sayre Fire story. That the command post for the command post is in El Cariso Park. El Cariso Park memorializes 12 members of the El Cariso Hotshots (wildfire fighters) who died in the 1996 Loop fire in LA.

Three So CA wildfires contained but . . .

Just checked the CAL Fire webpage. All three fires -- Tea Fire, Freeway Complex, and the Sayre Fire are contained. A total of 52,829 acres burned.

But the danger may not be over yet . . .

More red flag warnings for Southern California. At least through late Friday night. Found these warnings on the NOAA website for the Los Angeles, CA area:

RED FLAG WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA
240 PM PST THU NOV 20 2008

...RED FLAG WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST FRIDAY FOR THE SANTA
YNEZ RANGE AND SANTA BARBARA COUNTY SOUTH COAST DUE TO GUSTY NORTH
TO NORTHEAST WINDS AND LOW HUMIDITIES...

.HIGH PRESSURE WILL BEGIN TO BUILD INTO NORTHERN AND CENTRAL
CALIFORNIA TONIGHT IN THE WAKE OF A WEAK WEATHER SYSTEM PASSING
THROUGH THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. THIS WILL BRING ANOTHER ROUND OF
GUSTY NORTHERLY SUNDOWNER WINDS TO THE SANTA YNEZ RANGE AND
COASTAL AREAS OF SOUTHERN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING.
MEANWHILE...HUMIDITY VALUES ARE EXPECTED TO LOWER INTO THE TEENS
ACROSS WIND FAVORED LOCATIONS. THE COMBINATION OF GUSTY WINDS...LOWERING
HUMIDITIES...AND CRITICALLY DRY FUELS HAS PROMPTED THIS RED FLAG WARNING.

CAZ239-211800-
/O.UPG.KLOX.FW.A.0008.081121T0200Z-081121T1800Z/
/O.EXB.KLOX.FW.W.0033.081121T0000Z-081121T1800Z/
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY SOUTH COAST-
240 PM PST THU NOV 20 2008

...RED FLAG WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST FRIDAY DUE TO GUSTY
NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS AND LOW HUMIDITIES...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LOS ANGELES/OXNARD HAS ISSUED A RED
FLAG WARNING...WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST FRIDAY. THE FIRE
WEATHER WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

AREAS OF NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS 20 TO 30 MPH WITH LOCAL GUSTS
TO 40 MPH WILL DEVELOP BELOW PASSES AND CANYONS. THE GUSTY WINDS
ARE EXPECTED TO AFFECT AREAS AROUND THE TEA FIRE IN MONTECITO.
AT THE SAME TIME... RELATIVE HUMIDITY VALUES WILL BE NEAR OR FALL
TO CRITICAL LEVELS WITH MINIMUM VALUES IN THE TEENS.

A RED FLAG WARNING MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS
ARE EITHER OCCURRING NOW...OR WILL SHORTLY. A COMBINATION OF
STRONG WINDS...LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY...AND WARM TEMPERATURES WILL
CREATE EXPLOSIVE FIRE GROWTH POTENTIAL. PLEASE ADVISE THE
APPROPRIATE OFFICIALS OR FIRE CREWS IN THE FIELD OF THIS RED FLAG
WARNING.

$$

RED FLAG WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LOS ANGELES/OXNARD CA
240 PM PST THU NOV 20 2008

...RED FLAG WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST FRIDAY FOR THE SANTA
YNEZ RANGE AND SANTA BARBARA COUNTY SOUTH COAST DUE TO GUSTY NORTH
TO NORTHEAST WINDS AND LOW HUMIDITIES...

.HIGH PRESSURE WILL BEGIN TO BUILD INTO NORTHERN AND CENTRAL
CALIFORNIA TONIGHT IN THE WAKE OF A WEAK WEATHER SYSTEM PASSING
THROUGH THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. THIS WILL BRING ANOTHER ROUND OF
GUSTY NORTHERLY SUNDOWNER WINDS TO THE SANTA YNEZ RANGE AND
COASTAL AREAS OF SOUTHERN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY THROUGH FRIDAY MORNING.
MEANWHILE...HUMIDITY VALUES ARE EXPECTED TO LOWER INTO THE TEENS
ACROSS WIND FAVORED LOCATIONS. THE COMBINATION OF GUSTY WINDS...LOWERING
HUMIDITIES...AND CRITICALLY DRY FUELS HAS PROMPTED THIS RED FLAG WARNING.

CAZ252-211800-
/O.EXT.KLOX.FW.W.0033.081121T0000Z-081121T1800Z/
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY MOUNTAINS / LOS PADRES NATIONAL FOREST-
240 PM PST THU NOV 20 2008

...RED FLAG WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST FRIDAY DUE TO GUSTY
NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS AND LOW HUMIDITIES...

THE RED FLAG WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST FRIDAY.

AREAS OF NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS 20 TO 30 MPH WITH LOCAL GUSTS TO
45 MPH WILL DEVELOP THROUGH PASSES AND CANYONS IN THE SANTA YNEZ
RANGE. THIS INCLUDES THE FOOTHILLS AREAS ABOVE MONTECITO. AT THE
SAME TIME... RELATIVE HUMIDITY VALUES WILL BE NEAR OR FALL TO
CRITICAL LEVELS WITH MINIMUM VALUES IN THE TEENS.

A RED FLAG WARNING MEANS THAT CRITICAL FIRE WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE
EITHER OCCURRING NOW...OR WILL SHORTLY. A COMBINATION OF STRONG
WINDS...LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITY...AND WARM TEMPERATURES WILL CREATE
EXPLOSIVE FIRE GROWTH POTENTIAL. PLEASE ADVISE THE APPROPRIATE
OFFICIALS OR FIRE CREWS IN THE FIELD OF THIS RED FLAG WARNING.

$$

GOMBERG

Tallies of So Cal fires as of Nov. 18

Cap't Mike of Firefighter blog posted these tallies today. Some of these figures are updates from the figures I found yesterday on Cal Fire, but he also included totals to day as well as some figures I did not have such as the numbers of fire fighters injured in each fire.

photos of So CA wildfires

The CBS affiliate in Los Angeles has a webpage where you can view slide shows of the fires.

images of So CA fires from space

This is a photo of the So CA fires taken from space courtesy of NASA. Check the link out for a close up with labels showing the three fires.

Southern CA wildfires, Nov. 17

Cal Fire is reporting the following (I checked these sites at 10:20 PM EST):

1. Tea / Montecito Fire is 100% contained, 1,940 acres burned, 210 residences destroyed and 9 residences damaged.

2. Sayre Fire is 64% contained, 11,207 acres burned, approximately 615 residences damaged or destroyed, civilian injuries reported

3. Freeway complex Fire is 60% contained, 28,889 acres burned, 155 residences destroyed, 104 residences damaged, and 1,000 residences still threatened.

Wildlandfire cites a report that four firefighters had minor injuries fighting the freeway fires.

CA wildfires redux

There is nothing that I can say about the current fire emergency in Southern California. Prayers for those affected by the fires and the firefighters.

For those who are interested, here are some places that you can go to read more:

1. CBS TV in Southern California has some good maps from google earth along with other news items about the fires.

2. California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection has an incident page with basic statistics about the fires.

3. Capt. Mike of the Firefighter Blog is blogging about the fires with some interesting accounts, and maps.

4. The wildlandfire website has some interesting threads on the fires including links to maps and, individual forum threads about the Tea / Montecito fires, Sayre fires, Freeway Complex fires. All of these threads are in their major incidents thread in their hotlist forums. As I may have mentioned in earlier posts, there are many wildland firefighters, their friends and families who use this site, forming a sort of community of wildland firefighters. I go and mostly lurk, learn, and say prayers.

Montecito CA wildfire

I was reading about the Santa Ana winds and a red flag warning on wildland fire forums the other day. So, I figured that sooner or later there would be something on the national news about wildfires in CA. As some of you may have guessed, I have been involved with other things the last couple of days so have not been following wildfires in CA as closely as I might.

At least 100 homes have been burned in these fires near Santa Barbara and the Governor has declared a State of Emergency.

Here are some places you can go to read about these fires:

1. LA Times

2. Firefighter blog

3. Wildland Fire website

Fire Safety Plan adopted in two communities in NJ Pine Barrens

In my wonderings recently on the NJ Pinelands Commission website, I found this draft version, Fire Safety Initiative: Stafford and Barnagat Townships (NJ). I skimmed it several days and was especially interested in plans to build fire breaks along residential areas in the two townships that are especially vulnerable to wildfires. I made a mental note to add spending some quality time with this plan to read up on what they are planning to do.

Just this morning, I was reading the posts in the general discussion forum on wildland fire when I came across a post in a thread on news from the NJ forest fire service community with a link to this Nov. 8th article from the Asbury Park Press reporting that Stafford and Barnagat Townships have officially adopted this plan.

One of the policy issues relating to wildfires that I am interested in relate to issues facing communities such as Stafford and Barnagat Townships in NJ who are on the wildland/urban interface. These two communities are in the NJ Pine Barrens near the Warren Grove military base. In May 2007, a fire, known as the Warren Grove fire, burned 10,000+ acres including portions of both townships. If I am not mistaken, the Warren Grove fire was started by a flare dropped from a military plan from Warren Grove on a training run. I believe that this fire safety plan was adopted, in part, in response to this fire.

Sunrise Wildfires (1995) Long Island Pine Barrens

Some of you, especially those of you in the NY and NJ areas, may recall that 1995 was especially dry, creating prime conditions for wildfires in this region. I have been reading about the wildfires that burned the Long Island Central Pine Barrens for 13 days in late August and early September of that year. Approximately 6,800 acres were burned.

The Westhampton Volunteer Fire Department has a webpage on this fire with a couple of photos. Some picture of the fire, from the Riverhead Fire Department may be found here.

For those of you who are interested in such things, a copy of the (Long Island) Central Pine Barrens Fire Management Plan, dated August 1999 may be found here.

Wildland fire fighting safety: LCES

Before leaving the subject of fire fighting safety, I would be remiss to not mention the acronym LCES that every wildland firefighter is familiar with:

lookouts
communications
escape routes
safety zones

More information on LCES may be found here.

________________________________

Note: on October 14, 2014 I checked the link above and it worked.

Wildland fire fighting safety: 10 orders and 18 watchout situations

One of the things that has jumped out at me in the reading that I have done to date on wildland fires is the emphasis on wildland firefighter safety. The safety of the wildland fire fighter is paramount. I quickly learned that there are guidelines in place to protect the safety of wildland firefighters.

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) is an operational group designed to coordinate programs of the participating wildfire management agencies publishes a document. They also publish a document, The Fireline Handbook, that I consider a manual of wildland firefighting. This handbook is but one of a long list of publications that one may download from the NWCG website. I downloaded a copy and do refer to it from time to time.

When I skimmed the Fireline Handbook (437 pages!), I quickly noticed the emphasis on firefighter safety. John Maclean talks about the evolution of the 10 standard fire orders in Fire and Ashes in referencing the task force referred to below. I suspect that it is no accident that the 10 orders were put in place after investigations into both the 1949 Mann Gulch and the 1953 Rattlesnake Fires. I am not sure whether the 18 watchout situations came to be as a result of the 1957 task force or if they came about at a later time. I include them here. (Revised on October 14, 2014 from http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/safety/10_18/10_18.html)

The original ten Standard Firefighting Orders were developed in 1957 by a task force commissioned by the USDA-Forest Service Chief Richard E. McArdle. The task force reviewed the records of 16 tragedy fires that occurred from 1937 to 1956. The Standard Firefighting Orders were based in part on the successful "General Orders" used by the United States Armed Forces. The Standard Firefighting Orders are organized in a deliberate and sequential way to be implemented systematically and applied to all fire situations.

Shortly after the Standard Firefighting Orders were incorporated into firefighter training, the 18 Situations That Shout Watch Out were developed. These 18 situations are more specific and cautionary than the Standard Fire Orders and described situations that expand the 10 points of the Fire Orders. If firefighters follow the Standard Firefighting Orders and are alerted to the 18 Watch Out Situations, much of the risk of firefighting can be reduced.

The 10 Standard Fire Orders
1. Keep informed on fire weather conditions and forecasts.
2. Know what your fire is doing at all times.
3. Base all actions on current and expected behavior of the fire.
4. Identify escape routes and safety zones and make them known.
5. Post lookouts when there is possible danger.
6. Be alert. Keep calm. Think clearly. Act decisively.
7. Maintain prompt communications with your forces, your supervisor, and adjoining forces.
8. Give clear instructions and insure they are understood.
9. Maintain control of your forces at all times.
10. Fight fire aggressively, having provided for safety first.


The 18 Watch Out Situations
1. Fire not scouted and sized up.
2. In country not seen in daylight.
3. Safety zones and escape routes not identified.
4. Unfamiliar with weather and local factors influencing fire behavior.
5. Uninformed on strategy, tactics, and hazards.
6. Instructions and assignments not clear.
7. No communication link with crewmembers/supervisors.
8. Constructing line without safe anchor point.
9. Building fireline downhill with fire below.
10. Attempting frontal assault on fire.
11. Unburned fuel between you and the fire.
12. Cannot see main fire, not in contact with anyone who can.
13. On a hillside where rolling material can ignite fuel below.
14. Weather is getting hotter and drier.
15. Wind increases and/or changes direction.
16. Getting frequent spot fires across line.
17. Terrain and fuels make escape to safety zones difficult.
18. Taking a nap near the fire line.

source: http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/safety/10_18/10_18.html, accessed on October 14, 2014. Updated 10 and 18 above to reflect minor changes in wording made since November 2008.

early wet snow

Yes, your eyes are working. :-) We had a very sloppy day with some wet snow in my area. I had to drive to a mall about 25 miles away to pick up my computer from the Apple Store and it was a messy drive to the mall with a heavy wet snow falling for most of the trip. By the time I left the wet snow was beginning to taper off. I saw two trucks from my local roads department sanding the roads.

I would say that we had a coating of wet snow on our lawn and by the time I got home from the mall, a very light slushy accumulation on the roads.

Go here for some pictures.

I copied this public information statement with a 7:45 PM time stamp on Oct. 28 from my local noaa webpage. If you need help locating this public information statements on this noaa webpage, click on the text products icon and then go to public information statements. The current statement will be displayed and you can easily select prior statements.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
SPOTTER REPORTS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
745 PM EDT TUE OCT 28 2008

THE FOLLOWING ARE UNOFFICIAL OBSERVATIONS TAKEN DURING THE PAST 24 HOURS
FOR THE STORM THAT HAS BEEN AFFECTING OUR REGION. APPRECIATION IS EXTENDED
TO HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTS...COOPERATIVE OBSERVERS...SKYWARN SPOTTERS
AND MEDIA FOR THESE REPORTS. THIS SUMMARY IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON OUR
HOME PAGE AT WEATHER.GOV/PHI

********************STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL********************

LOCATION STORM TOTAL TIME/DATE COMMENTS
SNOWFALL OF
(INCHES) MEASUREMENT


NEW JERSEY

...ATLANTIC COUNTY...
POMONA T 250 PM 10/28 ACY INTL AIPRORT

...BURLINGTON COUNTY...
MOUNT HOLLY 0.1 245 PM 10/28 NWS OFFICE
CROSSWICKS T 1048 AM 10/28
MOUNT LAUREL T 420 PM 10/28

...HUNTERDON COUNTY...
LEBANON 12.0 500 PM 10/28 950 FT
CHERRYVILLE 5.0 400 PM 10/28
HIGH BRIDGE 2.4 130 PM 10/28
CLINTON 1.7 300 PM 10/28
FLEMINGTON T 825 AM 10/28
FLEMINGTON T 420 PM 10/28

...MERCER COUNTY...
HOPEWELL 2.5 425 PM 10/28
EAST WINDSOR T 1030 AM 10/28
EWING T 915 AM 10/28
HAMILTON SQUARE T 1032 AM 10/28
MERCERVILLE T 1052 AM 10/28
PRINCETON T 900 AM 10/28

...MIDDLESEX COUNTY...
NEW BRUNSWICK 1.5 130 PM 10/28
EDISON 1.0 1130 AM 10/28

...MORRIS COUNTY...
MOUNT OLIVE 11.5 520 PM 10/28 AT 1000 FEET
LONG VALLEY 8.0 420 PM 10/28 AT 1200 FEET
FLANDERS 5.5 730 PM 10/28
LAKE HOPATCONG 3.0 730 PM 10/28
MOUNT OLIVE 3.0 130 PM 10/28
BUTLER T 730 PM 10/28

...OCEAN COUNTY...
TOMS RIVER T 100 PM 10/28

...SOMERSET COUNTY...
HILLSBOROUGH 1.2 130 PM 10/28
PEAPACK 1.0 1117 AM 10/28
BRIDGEWATER 0.3 130 PM 10/28
BEDMINSTER T 1045 AM 10/28

...SUSSEX COUNTY...
HIGH POINT STATE 14.0 400 PM 10/28
WANTAGE 4.5 420 PM 10/28 AT 1020 FEET
BARRY LAKES 3.0 725 PM 10/28
NEWTON 2.5 730 PM 10/28
SPARTA 2.0 725 PM 10/28 UP TO 5 HIGHER TRRN
LAFAYETTE 0.5 130 PM 10/28

...WARREN COUNTY...
HACKETTSTOWN 4.8 420 PM 10/28
HACKETTSTOWN 4.0 645 PM 10/28
ALLAMUCHY 3.0 1105 AM 10/28
BLAIRSTOWN 0.5 730 PM 10/28
STEWARTSVILLE T 420 PM 10/28

PENNSYLVANIA

...BUCKS COUNTY...
JAMISON 3.0 230 PM 10/28
CHALFONT 2.0 400 PM 10/28
FAIRLESS HILLS 1.5 736 PM 10/28
FURLONG 1.2 230 PM 10/28
DOYLESTOWN 1.0 130 PM 10/28
LANGHORNE 0.8 230 PM 10/28
BENSALEM 0.5 230 PM 10/28
LEVITTOWN T 1040 AM 10/28
SPRINGTOWN T 720 AM 10/28

...CARBON COUNTY...
ALBRIGHTSVILLE 6.0 1115 AM 10/28 ELEV. AROUND 1700 FEET
JIM THORPE T 700 AM 10/28
PALMERTON T 700 AM 10/28

...MONROE COUNTY...
TOBYHANNA 16.0 700 PM 10/28 POWER OUTAGES
POCONO SUMMIT 4.5 1100 AM 10/28

...MONTGOMERY COUNTY...
MONTGOMERYVILLE 2.0 420 PM 10/28
SOUDERTON 1.5 1140 AM 10/28
WILLOW GROVE T 700 AM 10/28

...PHILADELPHIA COUNTY...
PHILADELPHIA T 1124 AM 10/28 NE

***********************PEAK WIND GUST***********************

LOCATION PEAK WIND TIME/DATE COMMENTS
GUST OF
(MPH) MEASUREMENT


DELAWARE

...KENT COUNTY...
DOVER AFB 47 513 PM 10/28

...NEW CASTLE COUNTY...
WILMINGTON 47 510 PM 10/28
NEW CASTLE 45 457 PM 10/28

...SUSSEX COUNTY...
LEWES BEACH 47 900 AM 10/28 BREAKWATER HARBOR

MARYLAND

...CAROLINE COUNTY...
RIDGELY 44 100 PM 10/28

...KENT COUNTY...
TOLCHESTER BEACH 44 1100 AM 10/28

...TALBOT COUNTY...
EASTON 39 1053 AM 10/28

NEW JERSEY

...ATLANTIC COUNTY...
ATLANTIC CITY 50 416 PM 10/28 INTL AIRPORT
ATLANTIC CITY 44 400 PM 10/28 MARINA

...BURLINGTON COUNTY...
MOUNT HOLLY 38 339 PM 10/28

...CAPE MAY COUNTY...
CAPE MAY 66 258 PM 10/28
CAPE MAY 59 730 PM 10/28 FERRY
WILDWOOD 50 255 PM 10/28

...CUMBERLAND COUNTY...
NEWPORT 48 700 PM 10/28
MILLVILLE 47 220 PM 10/28

...MERCER COUNTY...
TRENTON 36 1229 PM 10/28

...MONMOUTH COUNTY...
KEANSBURG 47 1100 AM 10/28
BELMAR 39 235 PM 10/28

...OCEAN COUNTY...
BARNEGAT LIGHT 50 400 PM 10/28
TOMS RIVER 36 435 PM 10/28

...SUSSEX COUNTY...
HIGH POINT STATE 52 250 PM 10/28

PENNSYLVANIA

...BERKS COUNTY...
READING 54 430 PM 10/28

...BUCKS COUNTY...
DOYLESTOWN 37 531 PM 10/28

...CHESTER COUNTY...
COATESVILLE 51 240 PM 10/28

...LEHIGH COUNTY...
ALLENTOWN 43 537 PM 10/28

...MONROE COUNTY...
MT. POCONO 43 445 PM 10/28

...MONTGOMERY COUNTY...
PHILLY WINGS F 44 520 PM 10/28
POTTSTOWN 38 202 PM 10/28
WILLOW GROVE NAS 38 534 PM 10/28

...PHILADELPHIA COUNTY...
PHILADELPHIA/NE 43 531 PM 10/28 NE AIRPORT
PHILADELPHIA 40 551 PM 10/28 INTL AIRPORT

final update on Sauders Ditch Fire

Sorry for the delay in posting this update. The forum thread about this fire on wildland fire reported yesterday morning (27 October) that the fire is 100% contained after the area received .58 inches of rain over the weekend with some smoke. Mop up continues. Acreage burned is 1,950.

And see this newspaper article.

I expect that the received more rain today, not as much as I did, but perhaps they received enough rain to help the remaining firecrews who are mopping up.

Sauders Ditch Fire - 70% contained

I have been relying on reports posted to wildland fire as my primary source for my posts about this fire. According to this mornings report (8:30 AM EDT on 10/24/08), 1,950 acres have burned and the fire is 70% contained. The main problem has been heavy smoke conditions made worse by inversion. Heavy smoke lead to the closure of U.S. Route 206 at 10:30 PM last night. Schools in nearby Hammonton Township are closed today as well.

Officials expect to reopen the highway once the inversion lifts this morning. Weather reports calls for winds from the east which are expected to clear the smoke for the highway and from the nearby town of Hammonton, NJ.

Sauders Ditch Fire update

According to a Star Ledger report around mid-day, the fire is at 50 percent containment and is not expected to spread outside of the remote area where it is burning unless there is "sudden increase in winds."

Route 206 in the area of the fire may be reopened today.

Sauders Ditch Fire (Pine Barrens, NJ)

The fire that I wrote about last night, aka the Sauders Ditch Fire, continues to burn tonight according to reports on wildlandfire.com. The fire jumped U.S. Route 206 last night, and the areas of greatest concern are to the east of the highway. Winds are an issue.

The report (written about noon today) reports that air support in the form of two helicopters and a fixed wing aircraft were scheduled to be deployed around mid day for water drops.

The Star Ledger reports that the fire has charred 1,800 acres and is 40 percent contained. Residents in four houses who evacuated yesterday were allowed to return today. Rain is not expected until this weekend so the fire may not be controlled until then or later, depending on the rainfall.

If I understand what I have been reading on wildlandfire about this fire, the fire started on the west side of U.S. 206 in the Atsion area before jumping the highway to the east side. The graphic is from google earth with a (kml) file from the modis active fire mapping program of the U.S. Forest Service. I can't speak for how up to date this information is as the modis files shows no fires east of U.S. 206 yet the latest reports that I saw all speak of fires to the east of the highway. At the very least this gives you an idea of the locale of the Sauders Ditch fire.

Fire in NJ Pine Barrens

There is a wildfire in the NJ Pine Barrens in the Warton Forest area. See this report from the Wildland Fire website. And see this article.

Early reports say this is a fast moving fire capable of burning 1,000+ acres. Part of the area was burned in August 2007 reducing fire behavior in that area.

Not a surprise, it has been dry recently and I was on the NJ Forest Fire website earlier today where they reported a high fire risk for the Pine Barrens.

Revisions to yesterdays post

For those of you who are interested and may have already read the post I made yesterday on Burned Area Emergency Response, I just made some modifications that I hope will provide further clarifications.

Burned Area Emergency Response

In July, I wrote about the Basin Complex fire that burned portions of the Los Padres National Forest. I wondered what was heppening in Los Padres in the aftermath of the Basin Complex and the Indians Fires. These two fires burned a total of 240,170 acres broken down as follows.

National Forest Service acres: 197,497
Other federal lands: 13,066
State: 5,248
Private: 24,263

In checking out the Los Padres website, I learned about the U.S. Forest Service's Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) Program.

After a fire on U.S. Forest Service lands, the Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) program kicks in. The goal of BAER is to to protect

life, property, water quality and deteriorated ecosystems from further damage from flooding and other natural events after a fire. A Forest Service BAER Team was convened in August to assess the entire burn area. Members included specialists in hydrology, soil science, geology, biology, botany, archaeology and engineering. The Team coordinated with local, state and other federal agencies to discuss assessment findings, values at risk and treatment options.

The objectives of the BAER program are to:

* Determine if emergency resource or human health and safety conditions exist.

* Alleviate emergency conditions to help stabilize soil; control water, sediment and debris movement; prevent impairment of ecosystems; and mitigate significant threats to health, safety, life, property and downstream values at risk.

* Monitor the implementation and effectiveness of emergency treatments.

In August, the Forest Service released this rehabilitation and emergency response update where the BAER team reports there early findings including a summary of acreage burned and post-fire ecological vulnerabilities.

In late September, the U.S. Forest Service released the BAER plan for U.S. Forest Service properties burned in the Basin Complex and Indians Fires. The approved initial BAER report may be found here (adobe reader required).

One of the responses under BAER is applying hydromulch to burned areas. According to the current conditions page of the Los Padres website:

Hydromulch will be applied by aircraft to about 1500 acres in the Gap Fire area. Hydromulch is an all-organic mix of paper/wood fiber, water and a binding substance. It helps hold the soil in place to minimize erosion, trap moisture and create an environment in which the native seeds and roots already present in the soil can sprout. The green dye in the hydromulch helps the pilots see where they have made their drops, but the color will fade to a light brown within a short period of time. Treatments are scheduled to begin on September 24 and will take 3-4 weeks to complete. The treated areas will be closed to all public entry for the first year to protect the hydromulch cover.

The first phase of hydromulching was completed on October 6. A map of the hydromulched area may be found here.

Not that the 1,500 acres that were hydromulched in this first phase account for only a very small percentage of total acres burned (197,497) in June and July on National Forest Service Lands. If my understanding of the Approved Initial BAER Report is correct, many high to moderately burned acres in Los Padres were on very steep slopes. Hydromulch can not be applied if slopes are very steep, so many high and moderately burned acres do not fit the rules or conditions for hydromulching and will not be treated.

I expect that the Forest Service will continue to provide updates on the Los Padres current conditions page. I'll be checking this page from time to time.

November 19, 2015: Unfortunately all or most of the links in this article are outdated and no longer available. The USFS page for Los Padres did have information on the BAER for the Station Fire that have since been removed. I am sorry. 

Santa Ana Winds

I found this webpage with a good brief description of Santa Ana winds by Robert Fovell, Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. He also includes a model of a typical Santa Ana event in California that you weather buffs might enjoy. Finally he has a good FAQ page.

California wildfires

Some of you may have heard about the recent wildfires in California on the news. Capt. Mike of the Firefighter blog has been writing about these fires. He has labels on his blog, so to make it easier for you, I used his label to provide you with what I hope is an easy to use link to his writings about Santa Ana winds and wildfires, including the recent wildfires in CA. This will take at least a couple of minutes to load, perhaps longer if you have a slower internet connection.

Briefly, as I understand it, Santa Ana winds can make wildfires in CA worse. I believe that this time of year, early fall, is (one?) of the seasons for Santa Ana winds. Dry conditions and Santa Ana can lead to deadly wildfires, ones that are difficult to fight. Sometime in the coming days, I'll try to find some specific information on the web talking about the relationship between Santa Ana winds and wildfires for you. In the meantime, take a look at this wikipedia link.

I am going to work on going back and putting labels in my blog, at least going back for the last three months in hopes that it will make easier to follow the topics that I am writing about.

What is happening at Lost Padres?

I went to the Los Padres National Forest website recently to see what has been happening in the aftermath of the Basin Complex Fire that I wrote about in the Summer. There were, I think, two fires at Los Padres, the Basin Complex and the Indians Fires. For the moment, I am going to post the link to this page at the Los Padres National Forest where current conditions are discussed, including but not limited to post-fire responses in the aftermath of the June 2008 fires.

wildfire terminology

I was looking around on the internet last week for some basic information about the anatomy of a wildfire along with some definitions of some of the terminology that is commonly used by those who write about wildfires. I found this short reference on wildfires produced by the South Carolina Forestry Commission in 1994.

The graphic that I am including in this post is from the SC Forestry Commission, they are also the source for the terminology discussion below.

A wildfire is any outdoor fire (forest, brush, grass, etc) that is not controlled or supervised.

Fires need fuel, heat, and oxygen (aka the fire triangle) to burn. Structural fires are typically attacked with water to reduce heat or foam to take away the fires oxygen supply. Wildland fire fighters remove flammable materials from the path of the fire, attacking the fire's source of fuel.

A variety of tools are used to remove fuel from a strip of ground called a fire or fuel break. One tool that I have frequently seen referred to is called a backfire or drip torch that is used to widen firebreaks by burning out fuel between the firebreak and the oncoming fire.. It consists of fuel canister filled with a mixture of diesel and gasoline with a wick-like burner attached to the canister by a long tube. The fuel ignites as it passes the burning wick dropping on the ground to ignite leaves, pine needles, and other detritus on the ground.

The head (see graphic) is the fastest moving and most dangerous part of the fire. According to the SC Forestry Commission, "since this is the portion of the fire that causes the most damage, firefighters try to stop the head first." On large fast-moving fires, several firefighters may plow side by side to create a firebreak wide enough to stop the head.. After the wildland fire fighters have stopped the forward progress of the head they construct firebreaks around both flanks and the rear to contain the fire. The next step is to mop up the fire by putting out any remaining hot spots and/or other spot fires, and reinforce their firebreaks. A fire is not considered to be controlled until the mop-up phase is completed.

Addendum: I am adding this addendum a few hours later. I have already been on another web page from the State of Maryland where they say that "firefighters usually start building a fireline at the place where the fire originated and work along the sides of the blaze toward the burning front." Note the use of the term fireline, which they say "looks a lot like a trail or small road, is a strip of land cleared of flammable materials like plants and shrubs."

To this novice, a fireline seems to be synonymous with a fire or fuel break. Moreover the folk from Maryland seem to have different take on where the wildland fire fighters start to build a fireline or firebreak to work towards containing the fire. Perhaps the point is that the methods for fighting a particular fire including where firefighters start building a firebreak, if indeed they even do this first, will vary depending on the characteristics of the wildland fire itself. All I am aiming to do here and in later posts is to get a handle on some of the terminology used in fighting wildland fires and related issues and to offer this to you along with links for you to peruse at your leisure.

Condor Chick survives Basin Complex Fire

I am starting to poke around on the various websites that I was following last July when I wrote about The Basin Complex Fire in Los Padres National Forest. One of the blogs that I heard of in the course of my wonderings is a blog called the firefighter blog. The blogger is Capt. Mike, ret(ired), and my take is that he is a retired fireman. I never really checked out his blog in July, rather I decided to go back to this blog at a later time.

The time has come for me to check out this blog, which I am in the process of doing as I write this. I found this interesting post: From the ashes; Condor chick survives The Basin Complex Fire including a you tube video from the Ventana Wilderness Society reporting their discovery of the chick.

I am awed by the tenacity of nature, how nature -- in this case a Condor Chick and parent(s) -- survived the fire. Nature does find a way, if we let her.

Since I have been promising to post some follow-ups about what is going in Los Padres National Forest following The Basin Complex Fire, I thought that the story of the Condor chick is a good place to start.

Delaware River (part 3): a culvert along the canal

I took a drive down to check out a section of the Delaware and Raritan Canal about two miles south of Lambertville, NJ yesterday afternoon. I wanted to check out some markers that I first saw when I went to that section of the canal last March. The markers, near a culvert, turned out to be uninteresting.

But I was interested in the culvert, so I am attaching two photos of the culvert, one from each side of the culvert. When I went back yesterday, I was struck by the much lower level of the Delaware River as compared with March 6, 2008 (bankfull). I am including two pictures looking from the towpath along the canal at the culvert looking towards the Delaware River. One, taken in March, shows the River at bankfull. The other, taken yesterday from about the same spot, shows the River at a significantly lower level, probably more along the lines of a "normal" level if not a tad on the low side.

Delaware River (March 2008): part 2

Both pictures were taken in Lambertville. One was taken on March 6, 2008 when the Delaware was at bankfull and the second was taken nine days later on March 15. I tried to go to the same spot on March 15 from which I had taken the earlier photo, but you can see that I was off a little. Nevertheless, I think you get the idea.

Delaware River (March 2008): part 1

Last March (March 6) I was out for a walk along the Delaware River when the River was at what is known as bankfull. We had just had a significant amount of rain and there was the possibility of even more rain a couple of days later. Bankfull is as what you think. This is when a river or stream is near the top of its bank, just shy of flood stage. Residents in floodprone towns including but not limited to Frenchtown and Lambertville prepared for the floods by sandbagging vulnerable areas.

So, if the substantial rainfall that was predicted a couple of days later, the river would flood for (I think) the fourth time in four years. The predicted significant rainfall did not materialize, fortunately.

By March 15, the river was back down. I drove down with my friend to get some pictures of the River at more normal levels to provide a contrast with the pictures I got on March 6 when the River was at bankfull. We saw the sandbags that I photographed, in either Lambertville or Frenchtown. I got these shots. I was interested in the culvert which may have been the source of flooding in the adjacent parking lot.

I'll post the before and after pictures tomorrow.

Trees in Delaware River floodplain near Frenchtown NJ

I wrote a few days about my walk along the Delaware River south of Frenchtown NJ along the Delaware and Raritan Canal Towpath. Now I am not a Forester or otherwise an expert at tree identification, I am an amateur at this. And I have books that I use to help me. In particular, I found this book in our home library a few days ago:

Collins, Reryl Robichaud and Karl H. Anderson. 1994. Plant Communities of New Jersey: A study in Diversity. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press.

They have a chapter on freshwater wetlands in northern New Jersey. While not specifically describing the Delaware River floodplains, perhaps because it forms the western border of NJ and PA, they do describe the floodplains of a river that is in the same physiographic region of NJ. Broadly speaking there are four physiographic regions in New Jersey, the portion of the Delaware River that I visit and the town I live in are in the piedmont region.

Collins and Anderson describe the plants located in the floodplain of the Raritan River in the piedmont regions. Two of the trees that they say are found in these floodplains are the River Birch, and the Sycamore. The links that I have provided are from a wetlands plants database from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They have a web interface that allows you to narrow your search of wetlands plants to your specific state and by plant type. If you are so inclined, check out the information provided on each of the links I provided for River Birches and Sycamores.

Speaking of Sycamores, I got to know Sycamores because they were numerous Sycamore trees located in the Hundson County town where we used to live. They line many of the residential streets in this town, and are also located in the parks, including the green area along the Passaic River.

I wrote about these two trees, because these were the common trees located in the region between the towpath that we were walking on and the Delaware River. Other trees that we saw were species of Maple and Oak, Hickory and/or Ash and Sweet Gum.

A word about Hickory and Ash. Both have what are known as compound leaflets (5 to 9 leaves). For more information on leaf terminology, see this webpage. There is an important but perhaps subtle difference between the leaf structure of Hickories and Ashes. I'm not sure that I can explain this in any way that will make sense. You will have to trust me that this difference can make it sometimes difficult to distinguish between Ash and Hickories, at least for me. Any tree guide, I have several tree guides including some very good guides put out by the Audubon Society, will have a chapter where they discuss various leaf types and other basic terminology used to identify trees.

Anyway, it was hard for me to distinguish between Ash and Hickory because the foiliage was too high for me to distinguish between the leaf structures of Ashes v Hickories. As for identifying trees by their bark, I am getting better, but it is still hard, sometimes requiring more study. Having read up on Ash and Hickories on my tree guides, when we go back, I may be better able to distinguish between the two.

Walking along the Delaware River

We are frequent visitors to the Delaware River in Hunterdon County, NJ. Usually someowhere between Frenchtown and Washington's Crossing. We pick a spot, park our car and walk for an hour or more usually along the Delaware and Raritan Canal. We share the path with bicyclists and the occasional jogger.

Given how much I love trees, I have been bothered that I have not been paying much mind to the trees that we pass. So, this week I paid attention to the trees as we walked. Given that this area is in a floodplain along a major river in the Piedmont section of northern New Jersey, I had an idea of what to find. And later ran through my list cross checking it with my Audubon tree guides and a book I have on NJ Plant Communities.

I would not call myself an expert at tree identification. When most of the tree is tall and most of the foliage is upwards of twenty feet or more high, it is sometimes hard for me to identify a tree off of the leaf structure. But between my friend and I, we at least have a good idea of some of the major trees that we saw on this walk. I'll write about these later, with links to pictures and the like.

I wish I was brave enough to wonder through the undergrowth between the canal path and the River to poke and get a closer look at the trees. However, the thick undergrowth of poison ivy discouraged me. And I was wearing shorts.

So, stay tuned . . .

Ballons

I'm taking a short break from my writings on the Pine Barrens, in part because I need to finish up another writing project. So, I thought I'd take this opportunity to post some photographs that I took at the 2006 and 2008 Quick Check Festival of Ballooning at Solberg Airport in New Jersey.

Brendan T. Byrne State Forest

In recent years almost every day trip we have made to the Pine Barrens involves a visit to the Brendan T. Byrne State Forest (formerly Lebanon State Forest). We first visited this forest sometime in the late 1980s during our annual late summer visits to relatives with a summer home in a nearby town. I expect that it was during this time that we were first introduced to the 49.5 mile Batona Trail.

The Baton Trail goes through the Byrne State Forest and its terminus is in nearby Ongs Hat, a short drive from the forest office. In addition to this trail, there are a couple of other trails in the forest. The trails go through a pine/oak forest, along side a pond known as pakim pond and an atlantic white cedar swamp. We have hiked in all these areas but I only have digital photos of the pine/oak forest within two miles of the forest office.

I don’t have pictures of Pakim Pond, but I did find this set of photos of pakim pond on the flikr site. These photos are incredible, of much better quality then anything I could do with my little digital camera. These photos are almost as good as being there in person, if not better.

In my recent wonderings on the internet, I found that the NJ Forest Service has an initiative to restore Atlantic White Cedars. Information on this initiative can be found here, and here is a related site, a paper on restoring the Atlantic Whites.

fort dix fire contained

The small fire in a remote section of Fort Dix that was burning last Thursday while we were in the Pine Barrens was contained either last Thursday night (Aug. 28) or early on Friday morning (Aug. 29).

See this news account.

Interesting

I had a dream about fires last night. I was either a fire fighter or an observer, there was no actual fire only the expectation of a fire. Interesting. This says something to me about my involvement in the writing and research that I am doing about wildfires. A few years ago I was a member of a research group doing some research about remediating the nuclear weapon production complex in America. At the time I would sometimes dream about nuclear waste. And at other times in my life, my work or school activities, coworkers, school buddies and friends would show up in my dreams.

Our visit to Penn State Forest

We did make it to Penn State Forest this past Thursday afternoon. We walked about three-quarters of a mile (or 1.5 miles round trip) up one of the sand roads into what appeared to a forest with normal sized pitch pines, smaller oaks, and blueberry bushes. We did not walk longer because we had already walked a couple of miles earlier in the day and were getting a little tired from a long drive. Anyway, the walk through the forest on this sand road was very soothing, quieting my soul. I saw the beautiful simplicity of this forest, and found all my cares being lifted. I suppose you can say that I feel replenished after our day in the pine barrens.

I think that the Pine Plains with the dwarf or pigmy pines would have involved a walk of at least three or four miles one way, or over eight miles round trip. Our hiking book suggested allowing five hours for the hike. Considering the length of time it takes us to get to this part of the pine barrens, this is more than we would want to do in one day.

When we did longer hikes in the pine barrens we were staying in the Tuckerton area, not far from Penn State Forest and other close by areas where we did longer hikes. The Tuckerton option is no longer available to us. Perhaps we will stay over a night in a hotel/motel next spring or summer and do a longer hike.

Anyway, I promised pictures and here they are. There are two pictures of Oswego Lake and another shot taken looking down the sand road we were walking on.

When we got to the parking area there was a group of young people getting ready to leave and a couple of kayakers on the Lake. When we left, about 1.5 hours later, the young people had left and there were one or two new cars in the parking lot. Otherwise, we had the place to ourselves except for the Park Police making a routine patrol. There is a small sand "beach" with a couple of picnic tables and a new composting toilet. There were no life guards so if you swim, you swim at your own risk. The most I have done was more along the lines of wading and otherwise cooling off and that was about fifteen years ago.

For those of you who are interested, the turn off for Penn State Forest is about seven miles south of Chatsworth NJ (intersection of County Rtes. 563 and 532 on County Rte, 563. The turn off, Lake Oswego Rd, will be on your left and is a paved road. If you get to Mikes Canoe rental or County Rte. 679 you have gone to far.

My trip to the Pine Barrens

We had a great day in the Pine Barrens yesterday. I got many pictures that I have to go through before I post my first batch. I hope to have the first batch ready tomorrow.

We walked for almost four miles in two different places, one of which was Penn State Forest, the one I wrote about recently. Those will be the first group of pictures that I post.

As for chigger prevention. Knock on wood is all I will say right now. . . I sprayed my socks, the skin under my socks and the bottom of my jeans. Then I tucked the jeans into my socks, and looked like an idiot. But I hope it kept those nasty little creatures away. When we got home, I took what I call my "uninvited guest" shower to wash off chiggers and ticks.

We drove about 300 miles all told, and we were both tired when we got home.

As we were driving home, I kept thinking that I saw smoke that looked an awful like smoke coming from a fire. And it turned out I was right, I saw a small article about the fire in my local newspaper, The Star Ledger. It turns out that the fire was in a remote section of the Fort Dix military base, located near the Pine Barrens. See this article and a second updated article, that will be freely available for 14 days or through September 12. At this point, the blaze is confined to a couple of hundred acres wholly within the military base and is no threat to the public.

At least I know that my instincts were right about the smoke that I saw yesterday.

Dwarf Pitch Pines

I have already mentioned that what makes the pine plains unique are the dwarf pitch pines (pinus rigida Mill.) that stand about five feet tall. Also present in the pine plains are blackjack oak (Quercu marilandica Muenchh.) and scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia Wang.). The pine plains ecosystem is specially adapted to fire.

The authors of the first chapter in Protecting the New Jersey Pinelands (B. R. Collins, N.F. Good, and R. E. Good) provide a good explanation of the relationship between the dwarf pitch pines and fire. In the pine plains, the dwarf or pigmy pitch pine has adapted to fire in that the seed bearing cones are closed or serotinous. These “serotinous” cones open only in high heat of the sort that occurs during a fire.

The distinctive character of this dwarf forest is probably the result of very frequent fires over hundreds or even thousands of years. Under such conditions the tree oaks, which are not found in the dwarf forest, would not have been able to maintain themselves, because they bear viable seed only on stems twenty years or more in age. The pitch pines present in this forest are genetically differentiated from other populations of the species. They are less upright, of shorter growth form, and produce cones at an earlier age. Unlike other pitch pines, whose cones open top disperse seed normalyy at maturity, the pitch pines growing in the dwarf forest have closed (or serotinous) cones that open to dispers seed only at high temperatures, such as those occurring during a fire (B. R. Collins, N.F. Good, and R. E. Good “The Landscape of the Pine Barrens”, p.15, in Protecting the New Jersey Pinelands: A New Direction in Land-Use Management edited by B.R. Collins and W.B. Russell, New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press. 1988).

See this link for images of the pine plains taken just after a fire, along with images of growth after the fire.

A more detailed description of the pitch pine, including sections on fire ecology, is found on this usda webpage.