Fire in the Northeast?

Jimmy Douglas – New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Written by Zander Evans
Some of us learned in school that the Northeast’s forests were nearly ‘asbestos’ and wouldn’t burn. This view ignored the ecological evidence and Indigenous stewardship and failed to acknowledge the swiftly warming climate. Last year was the hottest year on record and we are on track for at least a 1.5°C temperature increase (2°C is not unlikely). October 2024 was the all-time driest month on record for nearly 80 climate stations across the eastern half of the country – a surprise after the intense rain of Hurricane Helene. The drought in the Northeast combined with high winds to fuel wildfires – over 300 in New Jersey,150 in Connecticut, 122 in New York – as well as a 5,304-acre wildfire on the border of New York and New Jersey.
The Guild is responding to the increasing wildfire risk and continued need for the ecological use of fire for stewardship. As usual, the Guild’s approach is based on science, built through collaboration, and focuses on practical solutions. In fact, the Guild’s Polly Weigand traveled all the way to Ireland as part of the Internation Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference to share the latest science. The conference covered a wide range of key topics: fire behavior, fire regimes, fuels management, prescribed fire, smoke, air quality and health, wildland urban interface, social science, human dimensions, and Indigenous knowledge. The Guild co-founded and continues to help lead the North Atlantic Fire Science Exchange (NAFSE), a hub for science sharing and collaboration between managers and researchers to create a resilient North Atlantic landscape.

New Jersey Fire Camp 2024
As part of NAFSE and in partnership with New Jersey Forest Fire Service, the Guild helped host a training in May 2024 to build practical experience on top of the scientific foundation. The New Jersey Fire Camp was the perfect opportunity to provide college/university students and early-career natural resource professionals with developing technical skills through the ecological application of prescribed fire. The training included a walk through the forests guided by Stockton University Professor and Guild member Matt Olson. Participants conducted a prescribed burn, and many achieved their firefighter type II qualifications. The hands-on learning environment created at the Fire Camp contributed to a greater knowledge, understanding, and awareness of prescribed fire, ecology, and wildland fire concepts. Many participants indicated how beneficial it was to actually participate in the prescribed burn versus watching videos.
The Guild also helped put on the Northeast – Midwest Regional Prescribed Fire Science and Management Workshop, for wildland fire management partners across the 20-state region. There, we all shared region-wide, fire ecology information with the goal of expanding and maintaining the use of prescribed fire across all landscapes, jurisdictions, and fire-dependent ecosystems. The Albany Pine Bush Preserve lies within the unceded territory of the Stockbridge Munsee Community of Mohican Indians and at the eastern door of the Mohawk Nation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Both nations suffered from the forced removal from much of their ancestral homelands. Research is documenting their stewardship including a 6,600-year record of oak, pine, and wildland fires. The field trip demonstrated ‘Shifting Paradigms in Restoring Fire Regimes in the Albany Pine Bush Preserve.’ Since 1991 on the Preserve, management has focused on reducing wildfire risk and improving ecosystem health (composition, structure, function) by restoring altered fire regimes. As a sign of success, they have been able to overcome a range of challenges to help recover the endangered Karner Blue butterfly (Plebejus melissa samuelis).
The Guild is finishing a Community Wildfire Protection Plan for the Massabesic region of Maine. The plan builds on the learning and science collected in NAFSE as well as the Guild’s experience in the fire-adapted forests of the West.
Looking forward to 2025, the Guild with NAFSE and other partners, is looking forward to a prescribed fire training exchange in Maine. It’s all part of the wide breadth of work the Guild engages in to face climate and related challenges head-on, for the benefit of forests, ecosystems, and communities today and tomorrow. Though we take pride in this work and our role in leading forward movement in many of these areas, we gratefully recognize that it takes a whole community; within the Guild, among our partners, and among those who don’t have forests on their mind every day. Thanks to everyone involved, for their shared dedication and expertise to build a more collaborative and healthy future for forests and people. The Guild is honored to support the effort.

New Jersey Fire Camp 2024