Fire breaks in the NJ Pine Barrens

One of the the fire mitigation projects under way in the Pine Barrens in NJ is the construction of fire breaks in Stafford and Barnegat, towns within the Pine Barrens. I wrote last February, about the planned construction of a fire break along Pancoast Rd. in Barnagat and a similar project on Hay Road in Stafford.

In my wanderings recently on the internet, I came across an article from Courier Post Online, that the construction of fire breaks is currently under way in both Stafford and Barnegat. The article says in part:

Long-planned fire break projects are under way in Stafford and Barnegat. Over the last four years the state Forest Fire Service methodically burned more underbrush during controlled conditions, setting up blocks of less-flammable forest to help defend against future wildfires.

"We've been doing some work on Hay Road (near the Stafford Business Park) and Pancoast Road" in Barnegat, said Bill Edwards, a district fire warden.

Work by contractors involves thinning trees alongside the roads to create a defensible zone that firefighters can use to head off an advancing blaze.

Contractors get valuable oak and pine out of the projects, and the 2007 fire actually delayed the Hay Road contract by burning up a lot of good wood, Edwards said.

"That was a project that was in the works before the fire," he said.

Both the unpaved, sand Hay and Pancoast roads are wagon trails through the Pine Barrens that make logical lines of defense, for wildfires cannot be stopped by brute force with hoses, only with strategy and maneuver that aims to deprive fires of fuel before they arrive.

I'm not certain how long the link to the Courier Post Online will be active, and there is a photo montage of a fire burning in the Pine Barrens, I understand from this post on the wildlandfire hot list (where I first saw this article), that the fire shown in the slide show is not the 2007 Warren Grove Fire (the fire referred to in the article), but is the 2008 Atison Fire that also burned in the Pine Barrens. The photo montage includes photos of a SEAT working the fire and a helo doing bucket work.

The NJ Forest Fire Service just put out a publication called Best Management Practices for Creating and Maintaining Wildfire Fuelbreaks in New Jersey's Wildland Urban Interface, it is a very nice, short, easy read to read publication with a nice glossary and photos. Construction of a fuel break is something that most homeowners can do, perhaps with some help of an arborist to remove trees. The publications provides some how to tips for constructing fuel breaks. While written by the NJ Forest Fire Service for New Jersey residents, I think that it some of the information crosses state boundaries. So, I'd recommend reading it. You may click on download the publication in pdf format.

Firebreak to be constructed in Barnegat NJ (in the Pine Barrens)

The last large wildfire that burned in the New Jersey Pine Barrens was the Warren Grove Fire that burned over 15,000 acres in May of 2007. In January 2009, I wrote about a couple of trips I took to the Pine Barrens with references to the Warren Grove Fire and posted some photos of how the area has come back after the fire, go here to read this post.

Among the areas affected by this fire were clusters of residences in Barnegat and Stafford Townships NJ. These communities adopted a fire safety plan in November of 2008 that included the construction of firebreaks. Someone recently sent me this article from the Asbury Park Press about a planned firebreak along Pancoast Road on the border of Barnegat and Ocean Townships in New Jersey. I believe that this firebreak may have been a part of the fire safety plan passed in November 2008.

Note that this article may only be freely available until this Thursday, Feb. 25. The article says in part:

A nearly three-mile long fire break to protect adult communities in Barnegat got a green light Friday from the state Pinelands Commission, a step toward what fire wardens say will be a 200-foot wide selective thinning of a dense pine-oak forest along Pancoast Road on the boundary of Barnegat and Ocean townships.

The plan is similar to a project along Hay Road in Stafford, and likewise inspired by the great May 2007 forest fire that forced thousands to evacuate their homes west of the Garden State Parkway. Since then, the commission, the state Forest Fire Service and municipal officials have been working with community groups to be better prepared against wildfires.

The plan was presented last weekend to one community meeting in Barnegat, where a longtime resident told of a 1928 fire that destroyed his family's home, division fire warden Gergory McLaughlin recounted to commissioners Friday at their monthly meeting in Pemberton Township.

In the event of another major blaze, "this fire break is our last ditch attempt to protect those communities and our firefighters," McLaughlin said. ...

The plan is to selectively remove trees up to 200 feet from the north side of Pancoast Road, along 2.9 miles, and create "a more open, park-like forest," and lower the shrub height somewhat but not completely clearing to the ground, McLaughlin said. That aims to reduce the "fire ladder" of flammable low growth that can light the fuse for a fast-moving "crown fire" that burns high in the forest canopy and quickly skips from tree to tree, he explained. State foresters would periodically maintain the fire break to manage its growth density and fuel levels.

(Kirk Moore "Fire-break planned along Barnegat-Waretown line" Asbury Park Press, February 19, 2009, obtained on February 21, 2009 from http://www.app.com/article/20100219/NEWS/100219115/Fire-break-planned-along-Barnegat-Waretown-line).

What is a firebreak? According to the Glossary of Wildland Fire Terminology of the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) a firebreak is a natural or constructed barrier used to stop or check fires that may occur, or to provide a control line from which to work.

In an ideal situation, I would of waited a couple of more days to post this to allow myself time to try and find out some more information for you. But if I did that then I risked having an expired link in my article, so I am posting this today. If I am able to find more information on this firebreak, I'll make some follow-up posts.

In the meantime, I'll be making a couple of more posts on BAER and hydromulching so stay tuned.