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Restoring Fire to the Ossipee Pine Barrens

Restoring Fire to the Ossipee Pine Barrens
Krista Helmboldt, land steward for The Nature Conservancy
in New Hampshire, uses her drip torch to light the first
prescribed burns in the Ossipee Pine Barrens.
© Eric Aldrich Photo

On Wednesday, September 13, after three years of careful preparation, a longtime TNC staffer had the honor of tilting her drip-torch and letting fire burn a small part of the Ossipee Pine Barrens.

Watching nearby was a well-trained fire crew of more than two dozen people (including staff from TNC and partner organizations and agencies), all dressed in protective garb and ready for action.

The scene was a section of a 10-acre unit in Madison, in the heart of the Conservancy's Ossipee Pine Barrens Preserve. To prepare for prescribed fire, the area had been mowed in October of 2005. And in recent weeks, the unit's entire perimeter was mowed right to the ground, creating a protective fire break.

Quietly, over the next few minutes, they watched as the fire spread slow and low among the ferns, lowbush blueberry, scrub oak and occasional pitch pine.

But, just as nature's lightning strikes proved over the eons, some fires spread ... and some don't. This one didn't. Over the course of more than an hour, members of the burn crew walked through the low brush, trying to start fire. Despite their systematic approaches with drip torches (devices using a combination of fuels to drip fire on the ground), the fire never really caught on enough to spread.

The problem was the weather, according to Jeff Lougee, TNC's Mount Washington Valley Program Manager. Conditions didn't allow the forest floor's fuels to dry sufficiently to burn.

"Although we did not get the fire we wanted, there were several positive outcomes of the day," Lougee said. "First, it was great to go through a dry-run, which helped the crews get used to working together, and more importantly to become more familiar with the site. We had a great burn crew that consisted of staff from TNC in New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts, members of the Maine Army National Guard, and local volunteers and members of the fire departments."
 
Also, the effort "was a step forward in our learning about the site and how to apply fire," Lougee said. It was a good chance to learn many technical aspects of how fire might be started and controlled in the Ossipee Pine Barrens.

The day was a significant step of an ongoing program to manage to the Ossipee Pine Barrens with fire. "There will be many more prescribed burns here in the future," Lougee said. "The three years of planning and preparation wasn't aimed at a single burn, but rather to launch a management program. We made a baby step towards that end on September 13."

The program is supported in part by grants from the Wildlife Habitat Improvement Program, the Natural Resource Conservation Service and the U.S. Forest Service.
 
 

Ossipee Pine Barrens Fire Restoration“The Ossipee Pine Barrens is a globally rare forest type that has had a relationship with fire that goes back thousands of years,” Lougee said. “The prescribed burns that we’ll conduct here over the coming years will help restore and maintain this distinct habitat. Ultimately, this work benefits not only the habitat and its unique flora and fauna, but also families and businesses in the neighboring communities by reducing fuel loads that have built up here over the decades.”

The Nature Conservancy is a national leader in the practice of using fire as a management tool to restore ecosystems. Since 1961, the Conservancy has been at the forefront of planning and conducting prescribed burns to maintain biodiversity.

While the Conservancy is in the midst of an active land-protection campaign in the Ossipee Pine Barrens, it is simultaneously working to restore the habitat through a combination of mechanical means and carefully planned prescribed burns. The Conservancy’s goals are to:
• Maintain the pitch pine-scrub oak natural community;
• Enhance habitat for several bird species and rare moth and butterfly species; and
• Manage fuels to reduce the chance for wildfire.