Wildfire fears spark plan for controlled blaze on ridge
By Dan Shapley, Poughkeepsie Journal
Sunday, November 23, 2003

Flames 100 feet tall jumped off the pitch pines in Plymouth and Cape Cod, Mass., earlier this year.

Dramatic as they might have seemed, they were a far cry from the California wildfires that made headlines recently -- thousands of miles away and a world apart.

The Nature Conservancy burned 650 acres in Massachusetts last winter and spring, in controlled burns that roar like their wild counterparts, but are set to protect landscapes that naturally crave periodic flames. Similar burns are planned for a conservancy preserve in Dutchess County this year and points in the Taconic-Berkshire mountains.

The Shawangunk Ridge, where the Nature Conservancy manages the 5,400-acre Sam's Point Preserve, could be the next target for fires of this kind, if Shawnagunk Ridge Biodiversity Partnership plans come to pass.

The partnership includes eight owners and protectors of ridge land -- the Mohonk Preserve and the Minnewaska State Park Preserve and the Department of Environmental Conservation among them. The 'Gunks annually draw an estimated 500,000 people to hike, bike and climb on and among the bone-white cliffs.

Formed in 1994, the partnership aims to protect the biological diversity, scenic and other natural resources associated with the New York portion of the 'Gunks, which stretch geologically from Rosendale to a point in Pennsylvania.

It may seem odd for a group with that mission to set fire to the very land they aim to protect.

But 50 years of fire suppression -- with the exception of two controlled burns on the Mohonk Preserve in the late 1970s -- have left abundant fuel that the partnership fears could inspire unwelcome headlines about East Coast wildfires.

Further, the dominant forest types -- pitch pine and oak heath, dwarf pine and chestnut oak -- which collectively cover about 33,600 acres, are naturally adapted to periodic wild and human-set fire.

Fires were set for generations on the ridge to encourage good blueberry and huckleberry crops.

For 50 years, however, fire suppression has been the rule. Suppression is also a top threat to the ecological integrity of the ridge, together with encroaching development and recreational over-use, said Cara Lee, director of the Nature Conservancy's Shawangunk Ridge Program.

With training, money from the Forest Service's National Fire Plan and some persuasion to convince communities this fire thing isn't so bad, the partnership plans to begin burning at Sam's Point within about two years.

If successful, it will be used as a model for other points along the ridge.

"Most people that haven't seen a prescribed burn just can't imagine how you can control fire," said Stephanie Gifford, director of ecological management for the conservancy's eastern New York chapter.

The partnership is just beginning to inform the public about its plans, with its most intense effort in the Ellenville hamlet of Cragsmoor. There, residents will be taught to protect their homes in case of wildfire with a $60,000 Fire Plan grant.

"If you're going to start burning 30,000 acres in the Shawangunks, you have to have community support," said Hank Alicandri, director of stewardship at the Mohonk Preserve.

http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/sunday/columnists/stories/co112303s4.shtml