Out of Ashes: 15 to 19 mo after fire in NJ Pine Barrens

We took a trip to the NJ Pine Barrens this past Sunday, driving south on County Rte 539 through an area in and around the Stafford Forge Wildlife Management area that was burned in the May 2007 Warren Grove Fire. This fire burned in excess of 15,000 acres.

Looking at the google earth image, I believe that the fire started where the yellow pin is off of County Rte 539 in Warren Grove, NJ. To see a blog written at the time of the fire plus a more detailed map of the fire area see this blog from pineypower. The area where I took the pictures is about a five minute drive south of Bombing Range Road.

The photos are taken in an area of the Pine Barrens known as the Pine Plains, a forest of rare dwarf "pygmy" pitch pines. The pygmies stand about five feet tall, meaning that most adults can look out over the "tops" of the forest pygmy pines and scrub oaks. The "pygmies", as I like to call the dwarf pitch pines, are specially adapted to fire. That is, the cones require the heat of fire in order to open. If you look carefully at a couple of the pictures, you will see burned pines with open cones, those are the burned trunks of pitch pines (both dwarf and taller pitch pines. Out of the ashes comes life, literally. Look at the small pitch pines growing and the young scrub oak in two of the pictures (taken in late Aug. 2008).

You will notice the dead oak leaves in one of the pictures. I took that photo on Sunday. Many oaks hang onto their "dead" leaves through the winter, not dropping them until the spring when the tree is ready to leaf out.