Phragmites, marshes and brushfires

 I have lived in various locations on the east coast of the USA all my life in various states boarding the Ocean. I have spent a fair amount of time in various fresh and salt water wetland areas and am very familiar with a tall wetland invasive known as a phragmite or common reed. I have also lived near wetlands where phragmites had invaded the wetland where the agencies overseeing the wetland worked to control the invasive. I have also seen my fair share of fires in these marshes. Fortunately, the marsh fires that I saw posed next to no threat to residences but the smoke did interfere with traffic on nearby roads.

So, I was very interested when I came across and article from NY1 on efforts by the National Park Service to use a machine known as a marsh master to cut firelines in a marshy area of Staten Island to make the area safer for residents. I do recall at least one, possibly more brush fires in these Staten island marshes within the last couple of years. Go here to read about these efforts by the NPS in Staten Island.

I will be interested to see how things turn out in this area of Staten Island during the next fire season in the residential neighborhoods of Staten Island adjoining marshes.